Toward the Way of Love

Last week I mentioned the Episcopal Church, and Presiding Bishop Michael Curry’s, Way of Love. What exactly is that, you might ask. It is simply a form of a Rule of Life encompassing: Worship, Go, Learn, Pray, Bless, Turn, Rest. You’ll notice there are 7 parts, and there are 7 days of a week. That’s so the Rule of Life fits neatly into your week.

First, though, what is a “Rule of Life”? Often, we think of monastics, or priests, or other ‘religious folks’ as the only ones who have a Rule of Life. This can be something set up by their Order or ordination. However, each of us has a Rule of Life, whether you’ve ever thought of it that way or not. If you read your Bible, or a devotional book, or do some journaling, or have a quiet few minutes to pray then you have a Rule of Life.

According to the Journeying the Way of Love, Advent Curriculum (by Jenifer Gamber & Becky Zartman; Copyright © 2018 by The Episcopal Church, 815 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10017) a Rule of Life is “not just a set of rules to live by; rather, it is a gentle framework to guide and support us on our way [that] It helps us clarify our most important values, relationships, dreams, and work.” The authors point out “a rule of life [is] commitments to regular practices.” It can include, so called, secular activities like exercise or eating dinner as a family.

The Way of Love as outlined by the Episcopal Church is a Rule of Life with the goal of helping us grow in our relationship with God, ourselves, and others. According to the Advent curriculum, “The Way of Love invites us to a rule of life that leads to incarnating Divine Love in the world, so it is appropriate to initiate a journey on the Way of Love during Advent, the season we slow down to get ready to welcome Jesus, God incarnate, anew.”

Let’s review the seven parts of the Way of Love Rule of Life and what they mean.

Sunday, we are invited to Worship as an intentional way to gather in community with and before God. “As we break bread, our eyes are opened to the presence of Christ. By the power of the Holy Spirit, we are made one body, the body of Christ sent forth to live the Way of Love.”

Monday calls us to Go across boundaries and live like Jesus. “He sends us beyond our circles and comfort, to witness to the love, justice, and truth of God with our lips and with our lives…to join God in healing a hurting world [and] to become Beloved Community, a people reconciled in love with God and one another.”

Tuesday reminds us that we must Learn. The authors of the curriculum note, “When we open our minds and hearts to Scripture, we learn to see God’s story and God’s activity in everyday life.”

Wednesday, the middle of the week, is a time to remember to Pray. Prayer is an offering of our thanksgivings and concerns to God while listening for God’s voice in our lives. “When we pray

we invite and dwell in God’s loving presence.”

Thursday is a time to Bless by sharing our faith and unselfishly serving. The authors note, “We are empowered by the Spirit to bless everyone we meet…and to share our stories of blessing and invite others to the Way of Love.”

Friday is a day to Turn and take a break. “With God’s help, we can turn from the powers of sin, hatred, fear, injustice, and oppression toward the way of truth, love, hope, justice, and freedom. In turning, we reorient our lives to Jesus Christ, falling in love again, again, and again.”

Saturday is a day of Rest when we can be restored by God’s grace and peace. This is an invitation to an intentional time “for restoration and wholeness…[because] by resting we place our trust in God, the primary actor who brings all things to their fullness.”

In preparation for Advent, consider what your current Rule of Life is-both secular and spiritual. To help with that, you can download the weekly planner page for this week. You’ll notice the theme for the week is Preparation. Isaiah 40:3 calls us to Hear “the voice of someone shouting, "Clear the way through the wilderness for the LORD! Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God!”

Are there parts of your life that might be called ‘wasteland’?

Can you make a straight ‘highway’ for God to enter your heart this Advent?

What changes might you want to make or include in preparation for Christmas?

I invite you to join me in journeying the Way of Live this Advent using the Advent calendar incorporated in the weekly planner pages available, with some additional hints, from this blog during Advent. Download the first page to get started on the journey. 

Or gather in a small group to follow the curriculum itself. Perhaps you would prefer to simply download the Advent calendar  follow it through the next four weeks with the following topics:

• Advent One: The Annunciation: Saying “Yes” to the Journey

• Advent Two: Mary and Elizabeth: Journeying with Family and Friends

• Advent Three: The Birth of John the Baptist: Journeying with Community

• Advent Four: The Birth of Jesus: Journeying with the World

Pentecost: Transitioning to a Way of Love

We’ve been talking about Ordinary Women since September. Each of them responded to something in their lives by making a change that affected more than just their immediate circle. Frances Perkins left us the legacy of fair labor laws. Florence Nightingale and Clara Barton both improved nursing because they were faced with crisis during wartime. The Bible women Esther, Ruth, Naomi, Judith, Mary of Magdala, and Mary of Nazareth faced the demands of their lives with courage and faith that made them heroines in their lifetimes and beyond. Teresa of Avila and Hildegard of Bingen, though separated by about 400 years each impacted the church of their time with their insight and teaching.

For each of them, there was a transitional moment in their life. The time when they were faced with something that demanded a response. For each of them, the response was a form of love of their neighbor. They gave of themselves as Jesus commands in the Great Commandment. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength; and your neighbor as yourself.” Each woman looked beyond seeming differences and found something to love. These saints didn’t ask ‘does the soldier, the worker, the seeker, the endangered, the hurting, the lonely look or think like me?’ They simply reached out and cared for those who needed help.

How do we deal with the changes and transitions in our lives? Do we reach out, or lock ourselves away? Each day we have the opportunity to choose a response when confronted with a co-worker, a stranger, an inconsiderate driver, bad news, or a myriad of other things. The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church is calling for a change-to be the Jesus Movement in our environments. This is a call for each of us to love God and love neighbor. As Bishop Michael Curry noted in a recent sermon, ‘there is no asterisk’ in this commandment.

In his recent book The Power of Love, and in all his sermons, Bishop Curry issues a call to love. Love is the foundation of dealing with the changes and challenges around us. In his well-known Wedding Sermon, Curry calls us to remember the “redemptive power of love”. He says, “there is power in love to help and heal…to lift up and liberate…to show us how to live.” Living love is to “change not only their lives, but the very life of the world itself.”

The Episcopal Church has issued an invitation to The Way of Love. This includes 7 Practices: Turn to Jesus, Learn from Scripture, Pray, Worship, Bless, Go, Rest. I invite you to join me during Advent with some of the exercises and activities outlined in the Way of Live Advent Calendar and Curriculum. You can use the Advent calendar incorporated in the weekly planner pages available from this blog during Advent. If you prefer, gather a group together to do the study as outlined online. Next week we’ll look more closely at the 7 Practices of the Way of Love in preparation for Advent.

This week, in all the bustle of Thanksgiving preparations, I invite you to consider how to love God and neighbor in a life changing way like the women of God we’ve learned about over the past couple months.

Does any of them inspire you more than the others? What in your life is like hers? Can you make changes to live more fully committed to what you believe in?

Pentecost: Ordinary Women: Mary of Nazareth

This week we come to the end of our series about Ordinary Women by meeting Mary of Nazareth, mother of Jesus. Over the past couple months, we’ve looked at reformers, saints, and Bible heroines. What they have in common is that they said ‘yes’ when God spoke to their hearts. They felt the same Spirit that was present at Pentecost move them to do surprising things. They each, in their own way invited God into their life. The George Herbert poem Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life, is one way to offer your life to God.

Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life:
such a way as gives us breath,
such a truth as ends all strife,
such a life as killeth death.

Come, my Light, my Feast, my Strength:
such a light as shows a feast,
such a feast as mends in length,
such a strength as makes his guest.

Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart:
such a joy as none can move,
such a love as none can part,
such a heart as joys in love.

This past weekend was filled with many images. I was part of the team that worked on the Ordination of Bishop Hunn as the 11^th Bishop of the Diocese of the Rio Grande. It was a busy and yet uplifting trio of days (tridium, if you will) that was the culmination of over a year’s work. My mind is still processing the ministry, joy, music, worship, community, and glory of the weekend. With Herbert I can praise with a heart that ‘joys in love’.

I wonder if Mary of Nazareth was filled with similar emotions at the highlights of her life. She experienced great highs and lows of emotion, as we all do. It all started when she said ‘yes’ to God. We first meet Mary as a teen girl confronted with the angel Gabriel who has an astonishing message: ‘you are going to bear the son of God, even though you are not married.’ What must have gone through her mind at that moment? We know she had questions. ‘How can this be?” she asks. Confusion and fear and perhaps some anticipation probably swirled around in her head and heart.

Then she rushes off to see her much older cousin, Elizabeth, who is also pregnant. We might expect that relief, joy, and even prayer flooded over her as she and Elizabeth visited and bonded over their shared miracles. Perhaps she and Elizabeth felt the truth of the second verse of the poem by affirming that God is “strength as makes his guest’. With God’s strength all things are possible.

Nine months later, as she holds the infant Joshua/Jesus in her arms, she is visited by shepherds with stories of angel choirs. Then she ‘ponders all these things in her heart’. What things did she ponder? Adoration, surprise, awe, and like all mothers-love. Surely her heart overflowed:

Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart:
such a joy as none can move,
such a love as none can part,
such a heart as joys in love.

Over 30 years later, she again holds her son’s body. This time as a lifeless corpse. How might she have struggled to reconcile all the images in her life and heart with the death of her child? We can be sure that grief, despair, and fear were among the feelings she felt at that moment.

Then he arose! How does a person comprehend the incomprehensible? Astonishment, fear, confusion, and probably joy came to Mary at that time. We know Thomas had his doubts. Did Mary or the others in that upper room also wonder, at first, if such a thing could really be true? Perhaps it is only then that she knows the truth of the first verse:

Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life:
such a way as gives us breath,
such a truth as ends all strife,
such a life as killeth death.

Saying ‘yes’ to God’s call doesn’t mean that we know all the twists and turns of the journey ahead. Mary didn’t know how her life would be when she agreed to bear the Son of God. She simply had to trust God even when things were frightening or confusing. She could offer praise and adoration in the wonderful times. In the scary times, she could offer her fear and confusion.

Each of us has the same chance. When things are glorious and beautiful, we can offer praise and thanksgiving to God. In the dark times, we can come to God with our fears and doubts. Through it all, we can, as Presiding Bishop Curry reminded the congregation at the ordination, love God and love our neighbor. We are to be the bridge that brings God’s love to the hurting world.

We are called, like the other saints, be instruments of God. As the hands and feet of God to the brokenness around us, we must trust God. We are those who love our neighbor, even when they are ‘different’ than us. The Presiding Bishop suggested a retelling of the story of the Good Samaritan to illustrate this. He asked us to imagine that rather than a Samaritan and Jew, it was a Republican and Democrat… A good reminder in this week when we are having elections. It doesn’t matter what labels we put on others, the truth is that each of us is a beloved child of God. We must learn to see each other that way-through the lens of love!

Just like Mary and the other saints we have learned about, we experience a variety of emotions every day. We may find ourselves slipping from joyful praise, to frustration, to prayer, to sorrow, to doubt and back again in the course of a day, or even an hour. The poem by George Herbert reminds us that God is ‘the truth as ends all strife…the life that killeth death’.  

Are there times in your life that resonate with the words of Herbert’s poetry?

Can you use this poem as your prayer when the news is troubling? Or is there another prayer or hymn that helps you remember God is love and God is in charge?

Pentecost: Ordinary Women: Hildegard of Bingen

This week we look back to the Middle Ages to a woman who stood up to popes and kings 400 years before Teresa of Avila. Hildegard of Bingen was influential in her time. She was the youngest child of Mechtild of Merxheim-Nahet and Hildebert of Bermersheim, born around 1098. Nobility, the family was in the service of Count Meginhard of Sponheim.

Hildegard’s life might be summed up in James 3:13-18. “Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without a trace of partiality or hypocrisy. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace for those who make peace.”

Throughout her life, Hildegard had health problems. Like Teresa, it was during these episodes that she experienced visions. As often happened with younger children, she was sent to the Benedictine monastery at Disibodenberg in the Palatinate Forest of Germany. She took her profession with Jutta, daughter of Count Stephan II of Sponheim around 1112. The pair was the core for a community of women who joined the monastery. Jutta taught Hildegard to read and write. Hildegard also learned to play the 10-stringed psaltery and started creating music around that time.

When Jutta died in 1136, Hildegard was elected magistra of the community. Although Abbot Kuno of the Disinbodenberg monastery asked Hildegard to take the position of Prioress, she declined. Preferring independence for her community, she requested a move to Rupertsberg to establish a separate community. Despite the Abbot’s refusal, she persevered and received approval from Archbishop Henry I of Mainz. However, it was not until 1150 that the nuns moved to St. Rupertsberg monastery. Fifteen years later Hildegard founded a second monastery at Eibingen.

Hildegard knew that her visio, her visions, were a gift from God that helped her see all things in the light of God through her senses. She shared them with only a few trusted friends, like Jutta and her confessor. Then in 1141, she received the instruction to “write down that which you see and hear”. She didn’t want to obey and became physically ill as she tells in Scivias (Know the Ways), “But I, though I saw and heard these things, refused to write for a long time through doubt and bad opinion and the diversity of human words, not with stubbornness but in the exercise of humility, until, laid low by the scourge of God, I fell upon a bed of sickness; then, compelled at last by many illnesses, and by the witness of a certain noble maiden of good conduct [the nun Richardis von Stade] and of that man whom I had secretly sought and found, as mentioned above, I set my hand to the writing. While I was doing it, I sensed, as I mentioned before, the deep profundity of scriptural exposition; and, raising myself from illness by the strength I received, I brought this work to a close – though just barely – in ten years. (...) And I spoke and wrote these things not by the invention of my heart or that of any other person, but as by the secret mysteries of God I heard and received them in the heavenly places. And again I heard a voice from Heaven saying to me, 'Cry out therefore, and write thus’.”

As James 3:17 notes, “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits.” Hildegard’s works of writing, music, and art came from her devotion to God. Pope Eugenius learned of Hildegard’s work and gave Papal approval in 1148. This gave her credence and fame. She went on to author 3 books of her visions, 2 books on natural medicine, music for liturgy and a musical morality play (Ordo Virtutum). She was an avid correspondent and nearly 400 of her letters survive. Her recipients ranged from popes and emperors to abbots and abbesses. Hildegard drew many of her visions as mandalas and these remain popular today.

Hildegard died September 17, 1179. Although she was one of the first persons to be put forward for canonization as a saint, the process was never completed. However, in 2012, she received “equivalent canonization” and she was the 4^th woman named a Doctor of the Church. The Church of England lists her as a saint with the feast day of September 17.

Hildegard was a multi-talented woman. Her leadership of the nuns, and her correspondence with the rich and powerful had wide ranging effects. She did not see herself as important, though.

What can we learn from Hildegard’s life?

Look up some of Hildegard’s mandalas and make one of your own.

Next week there will be no post. The following week we’ll conclude this series with a look at Mary of Nazareth, mother of Jesus. 

Pentecost: Ordinary Women: Teresa of Avila

Our Pentecost series about ‘ordinary women’ has looked at modern women and Biblical women. We’ve learned about a couple of nurses and a labor activist, along with a queen, and a mother with her daughter-in-law. Now we turn from Mary Magdalene and Judith, two Bible women who have stories of radical response to God’s call in their lives, to a woman of the Renaissance.

Earlier this week was the feast day of Teresa of Avila, at 16^th century nun who reformed the Carmelite order. An insightful meditation on her life was written by Dana Kramer-Rolls for Episcopal Café. Kramer-Rolls notes that we don’t always “like words like “obedient,” “humility,” and we distrust “passion.”  We are much more comfortable with “justice,” “protest,” “resist,” which certainly have their place. But subjection to God also has Gospel approbation, and obedience and discernment ought to precede action or a contemplative life.” She goes on to say, “We face Teresa’s tension. For us the power of the Church now resides in the State, and we still struggle with discernment…the path of humility and obedience, however unpopular and painful, offers a path to peace beyond words, and a friendship with and passion for our Lord and our God beyond anything which the world offers.”

Teresa was a woman who lived the Sermon on the Mount. She knew that “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” (Matthew 5:3-4)

She was born in 1515 in Avila, Spain to a wealthy wool merchant, Alonso Sancez de Cepeda and Beatriz de Ahumada y Cuevas. After her mother died when she was 11, Teresa was sent to the Augustine monastery at Avila where she was often ill. During her sicknesses, she experienced religious ecstasy. She insisted that she rose to the ‘devotions of ecstasy’-perfect union with God. As promised, she found comfort in God’s presence in the visions.

Matthew 5:5 says, “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.” Even though she did not seek it, Teresa found herself acting as a reformer. At 20, she entered the Carmelite Monastery of the Incarnation in Avila. She almost immediately began to feel that reform was needed. As Kramer-Rolls says, it had become more like a social club. It wasn’t until she was 45 (in 1560) when the Franciscan Saint Peter of Alcantara became her spiritual advisor. With his support, and funding by Guimara de Ulloa, a woman of wealth, she established the monastery of San Jose in 1562 on the model of absolute poverty. She received papal sanction to the prime principle of absolute poverty and renunciation of property. She revived strict rules; and added ceremonial flagellation each week. In 1567 she began to establish new houses around Spain.

Teresa is well known for her visions. Throughout her life she was felt “hunger and thirst for righteousness”…and felt “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” (Matthew 5:6, 8). Starting in 1559, she had two years of visions of Christ present in bodily form, though invisible. Her most famous vision is immortalized in The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa by Bernini, found in the Basilica of Santa Maria della Vittoria in Rome. She explained, “I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it...”

Teresa was not just a person given to visions. She was a hard worker. Her life and witness convinced John of the Cross and Anthony of Jesus to found Discalced Carmelite Brethren houses for men in 1568 and others over the next 8 years. As the Sermon on the Mount notes, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy” and “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” (Matthew 5: 7, 9)

Teresa offers a path toward union with God as outlined in her work The Interior Castle. She died in 1582. Forty years later she was canonized by Pope Gregory XV and in 1970 she and Saint Catherine of Siena were both named as Doctors of the Church by Pope Paul VI. They were the first women awarded this honor.

Her life was not without struggle, though. Jesus promises, “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” (Matthew 5:10-12)

Teresa perhaps found comfort in those words. Her paternal grandfather had been Jewish but was forced to convert to Christianity, and in fact was condemned by the Spanish Inquisition for reverting to Judaism. He was able to refute the charges and reassume a Christian identity when her father was a child. The stigma lingered in the family, though, prompting her mother to be especially fervent in securing Christian teaching for her daughter.  

Not everyone approved of her work and even other Carmelite orders persecuted her. In 1576 she was forbidden from founding convents. The Spanish Inquisition even considered whether she was a heretic. The trials continued until King Phillip II of Spain intervened and the Inquisition charges were dropped in 1579.

Even though the poem Christ has no body now but yours is attributed to Teresa, there is no record of it in her writings. Another prayer that was found in her books, in her own handwriting, could be a summary of the Sermon on the Mount and a hymn of praise to trusting in God.

Let nothing disturb you.
Let nothing make you afraid.
All things are passing.
God alone never changes.
Patience gains all things.
If you have God you will want for nothing.
God alone suffices.

— St Teresa, The bookmark of Teresa of Ávila

Are there parts of the Sermon on the Mount that apply to your life?

Does the prayer above comfort you with the idea that ‘God alone suffices’? Is there another phrase in the prayer that seems important to you?

Pentecost: Ordinary Women: Mary of Magdala

Over the past few weeks, we’ve looked at some women who are, on the surface ‘ordinary’. They are simply women who were going about their daily lives when God stepped in and transformed them. They responded to the needs of the world around them and made a difference in social justice, in nursing, and in standing against oppression. Last week we saw that even a woman who might not have actually lived can inspire us to make changes and stand up for what is right.

This week, we come to a rather misunderstood woman. Mary of Magdala. I’ve written about Mary several times on this blog over the years. She is a fascinating woman, even though there is not a lot concrete known about her.

Although blackened by Pope Gregory as a prostitute, there is no evidence of that in the Biblical record. A more likely scenario is that she was a woman of some wealth from the town of Magdala on the Sea of Galilee. We know that Jesus cast out 7 ‘demons’ from her. Whether this was some sort of massive possession or a way of explaining a dramatic healing of insecurities and fears that kept Mary enslaved, is not clear. 

In any event, Mary became one of the women who followed and ministered to Jesus ‘from their wealth’. The women were the fearless ones who stood at the foot of the cross and went to the grave after the Sabbath to complete the anointing of the body. Consequently, Mary was the one who first met the Risen Lord and to whom was given the directive ‘go and tell my brothers’.

It is said that after the Resurrection she continued her evangelism, even to the Imperial Court.  Far from being a behind the scenes operator, Mary was called to be part of the action. She was not afraid to tell her story. Mary invites us to be activeparticipants in our world, to look and see God everywhere. 

Mary reminds us that Jesus can cast out our demons of insecurity, fear, the past, and whatever else can trouble us. God is for us at all times.  

As you enter into the world of Mary, you might do this exercise from 2015 using images to see which way you see her. This one of Mary turning to see who has called her name is one of my favorites.

Then take a minute to consider what pictures you might use to represent yourself. Maybe a butterfly or an eagle. Perhaps, like me, a turtle is your 'totem' animal, reflecting the need for security. Lately, however, a hawk has taken up residence in a nearby tree and I see her as symbolic of strength and resilience.  

What images of yourself do you have? Do these images truly reflect how God sees you?

Can you start to see yourself like God does-as God’s own beloved?

Pentecost: Ordinary Women: Judith

In this series, we’ve been looking at women, who made a difference in the world because they said ‘yes’ to God. Another woman from the Biblical record who, though ordinary, reacted in an extra ordinary way is Judith. Her story is found in the Apocrypha in the book that bears her name.  She was one of the women we studied at the August women’s retreat.

The Apocrypha is books that didn’t make it into the “canon”-the list of books chosen to go into the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament). Fourteen of these books are found in the Septuagint translation of the Old Testament. This was the translation done by 70 Jewish scholars in the 2^nd and 3^rd Centuries BCE. The Roman Catholic church calls these books deuterocanonical (or second canon) and includes them in translations of the Bible like the Jerusalem Bible. Most Protestant churches do not include these books at all, except in a separate section or separate book. The books in the Apocrypha, in general, cover stories in the time between the end of the Old Testament and the start of the New Testament. There are stories of the Maccabees who reestablished the independence of Israel and formed the Hasmonean dynasty, from which the Herods of the New Testament were descended. Additions to the Book of Esther and Daniel are also in the apocryphal books, as are some other assorted stories, including the Book of Judith.

The basic story is that Judith, whose husband has been killed by the Assyrians, goes to the Assyrian camp with her maid. She pretends to be an informant, gaining the trust of General Holofernes. Then one night, as he lies drunk, she beheads him. Her action demoralizes the army who retreats from Israel. Meanwhile, Judith returns home with the head of Holofernes to prove that God has saved them by her hand. The Book of Judith records that she was courted by many men, but chose to remain single.

It is unlikely that Judith was a real person, although some writers try to identify Judith with some historic female leader like Queen Salome Alexandra who was the only female queen of Judea, and last ruler of the independent nation. (76-67 BCE)

Throughout history, Judith has been depicted in art, like this image of Judith with the Head of Holophernes by Christofano Allori from 1613. I saw a special exhibit at the Museum of Biblical Art in Dallas a couple years ago,  featuring the story of her life, which was quite impressive although I don't recall the artist's name. (The museum also has a wonderful Via Dolorosa sculpture garden, works by Ron DiCianni, and art pieces created from weapons of war.)

Even if she was never a real live woman, Judith can teach us about courage and acting to rectify injustice. We may not want to cut off someone’s head, but we can speak out against evil. We may not have to pretend to be a traitor, but we can confront wrong.

Some might say that Judith was ‘over the top’ in her actions. As women, we are often urged to not be outspoken or take a stand. AnnVoskamp advises, “Don’t take it down a few notches. Take risks — and take all of you to the table. It can feel terrifying — but it is far more terrifying to live anything less than being fully seen…

Because the world’s much too apathetic, the world needs how you ferociously feel much. Because the world’s much too distant and indifferent, the world needs how you passionately and compassionately give much of your attentive soul. Because the world has lost much of its heart, the world needs more of us to come with so much of our heart instead of so little. And it’s better to feel much than to feel much of nothing at all. It’s better to love with your whole broken heart than to love anything half-heartedly. Those who are told they are too much — are those who awaken the world in much needed ways.”

Is there something that you think needs to change? Maybe God is calling you to take a stand.

Are you willing to take risks and give more of your heart to ‘awaken the world’?