Jer. 17:19-27
Rom. 7:13-25
John 6:16-27
Psalm 100
1Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth.
2Worship the LORD with gladness; come into his presence with singing.
3Know that the LORD is God. It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name.
5For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
Here we are in the midst of the penitential season of Lent and today one of the psalms is this joyful song to God. I recently made a ‘mandala’. The end result surprised me by being very symbolic of the seasons, cycles, and turnings of my life. Like a joyful psalm in lent, the cycles of our lives can be surprising.
A mandala is a spiritual tool used to focus the thoughts and bring us back to the center. In use by many religious traditions, the shape is usually circular or oval. Carl Jung said mandalas are “a representation of the unconscious self”. Used widely in Buddish and Native American religion, the mandala is also used by Christian mystics and seekers. Hildegard of Bingen, a 11th century nun, healer, writer, composer, botanist, and prioress drew mandalas to express many of her visions. She counseled popes and archbishops (almost unknown for a woman of that era). Some experts see the Celtic cross as a form of a mandala, esp. those with carvings along the uprights and crossbeams. Another is the rose window found in many churches and cathedrals. The reason for a mandala is to help use leave the rational, conscious mind aside and enter deeper into the mystery that is God.
The mandala I made at first seemed to be just an exercise for the class, but as I worked with it and thought about the colors which at first seemed random, I realized that there was a message for me. I found in it a reminder of the faith cycles I (we all) go through. This psalm also calls us to remember to be joyful and worship God through all the changes of our life.
1Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth.
2Worship the LORD with gladness; come into his presence with singing.
3Know that the LORD is God. It is he that made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him, bless his name.
5For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.
Here we are in the midst of the penitential season of Lent and today one of the psalms is this joyful song to God. I recently made a ‘mandala’. The end result surprised me by being very symbolic of the seasons, cycles, and turnings of my life. Like a joyful psalm in lent, the cycles of our lives can be surprising.
A mandala is a spiritual tool used to focus the thoughts and bring us back to the center. In use by many religious traditions, the shape is usually circular or oval. Carl Jung said mandalas are “a representation of the unconscious self”. Used widely in Buddish and Native American religion, the mandala is also used by Christian mystics and seekers. Hildegard of Bingen, a 11th century nun, healer, writer, composer, botanist, and prioress drew mandalas to express many of her visions. She counseled popes and archbishops (almost unknown for a woman of that era). Some experts see the Celtic cross as a form of a mandala, esp. those with carvings along the uprights and crossbeams. Another is the rose window found in many churches and cathedrals. The reason for a mandala is to help use leave the rational, conscious mind aside and enter deeper into the mystery that is God.
The mandala I made at first seemed to be just an exercise for the class, but as I worked with it and thought about the colors which at first seemed random, I realized that there was a message for me. I found in it a reminder of the faith cycles I (we all) go through. This psalm also calls us to remember to be joyful and worship God through all the changes of our life.
Let me explain how the 3rd verse of this psalm fit into the cycles I found in my mandala.A seed is planted (although the ground seems barren and nothing seems to be happening in your relationship with God). This is a time when we begin to Know that the LORD is God.
Watering is needed (the discovery of God’s never failing presence in the relationship). We understand that It is he that made us,
Sunlight encourages growth (our relationship with God is nurtured). We understand that We are his
All this leads to growth (a blooming of the relationship and flowering of faith and works). Simply because We are his people, and the sheep of his pasture
This quote from Mother Teresa brings us to a similar joyful place:
The Fruit of Silence is Prayer
The Fruit of Prayer is Faith
The Fruit of Faith is Love
The Fruit of Love is Service
The Fruit of Service is Peace
Have you observed similar patterns in your faith walk? Are there times when God seemed distant, followed by nourishing and nurturing which resulted in growing faith and the desire to respond with love and action?
For your Journal: Using Mother Teresa’s words draw your own mandala. Start with a circle or oval shape marked in 4 quadrants (or go to http://free-mandala.com/en/start.html to find a starter shape to use. Choose one of the Fruits (prayer, faith, love, service, or peace) to be the center of our mandala. The other 4 will be represented in the 4 quadrants.
Now you can color or find pictures in magazines or even a variety of media in each of the quadrants to represent the “fruits”. Don’t be confined to the size of the printout or shape you drew. If you feel that you should expand outside the borders of the drawing, go ahead and mount the mandala on a larger paper.
When you finish, sit with your mandala and see if you can see a pattern between the 5 fruits and your life and relationship with God.
