Word Made Flesh

 In this last of the Pentecost series about Words and Story, I come to the beautiful words at the beginning of the Gospel of John. The Word was made flesh and lived among us.

The way we can work to build the Beloved Community, which is the Kingdom of God, is in and through the Love of God made Incarnate in Jesus Christ. The full expression of God’s love, seeking the lost and bringing all back into the fold, is in the Story of the Life, Death, and Resurrection of the carpenter from Nazareth 2000 years ago. God’s all-consuming Love was seen in that one Man. We make that Love incarnate daily in our Words and Actions.

Where do we start?

We can start by thanking God for God’s Love, and then thanking God for our similarities and differences. We can learn, as James Blay said in the D365 devotional on June 11, “Gratitude is a part of the story of God’s kingdom. Because God is good to us, we should always find ways to show how grateful we are for the goodness of God. Part of our expressions of gratitude goes beyond just saying thanks. We need to show gratitude for God’s goodness and grace in the way we treat one another. We cannot be grateful to God while at the same time being mean and hateful to others.”

Blay goes on to say, “Give thanks to God because God is good; show thanks to God by being good to others, especially those who are different from you. When we speak and act out our gratitude, the story of the kingdom of God becomes good news to all who hear and experience it. Think about ways you can speak and act out gratitude as you go about your day, then do it.”  

I need to remember that my Words come from my personal Story, which isn’t the same as anyone else’s. Their Story is just as valid and they may give me new insights to consider. I must remember that my words have the power to harm or to heal, to sooth or to sear. It is too easy to want to have the final word and prove we are right, better, wiser…than to pause and listen to what someone else is really saying from their hear. This image is a reminder of the importance of and danger in how we use our Words.

Personally, I process things via the written word. As I noted at the beginning, this series has been as much a seeking of clarity for me, as of interest to my readers. I find that I can sometimes get more deeply into someone’s story by telling that story. So, for the next few weeks, I’ll be offering imagined vignettes of men, women, and children who were affected, and/or are still affected, by the actions (or inaction) of us and our ancestors be they white or POC.

I end this series with a Franciscan Benediction:

May God bless you with discomfort
At easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships
So that you may live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people,
So that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace.

May God bless you with tear
To shed for those who suffer pain, rejection, hunger, and war,
So that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and
To turn their pain into joy.

And may God bless you with enough foolishness
To believe that you can make a difference in the world,
So that you can do what others claim cannot be done
To bring justice and kindness to all our children and the poor.

Amen-So be it Creator, Redeemer, Sustainer-Amen

St. Francis: Make me an Instrument of Your Peace

Francis of Assisi is best known for founding the Franciscan Order, and his love of creation. He didn’t start out as a religious man. Francis was born 1181 or 1182 in Assisi, Italy during a time when the various city states of Italy were at war. His mother named him Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone. His father called him Francesco. When he was about 20, he was held as a prisoner of war for a year.
Four years later he had a vision of Christ while in the Chapel of San Damiano, near Assisi. He was told “go and repair my house”. Assuming it was the church he was in, Francis set out to do that. In the process, he gathered followers who wanted to live simply and help in the work.

In 1209, he composed the Regula primitiva or "Primitive Rule" for his followers ("friars"). They were simply "To follow the teachings of our Lord Jesus Christ and to walk in his footsteps.” A year later, on April 16, 1210, Pope Innocent III approved Order. From this grew the men's Order of Friars Minor, the women's Order of Saint Clare, and the Third Order of Saint Francis.

He set up the first creche with live animals to help the people experience the nativity in 1223. Francis died on October 3, 1226 and was canonized by Pope Gregory IX on July 16, 1228. He has become associated with patronage of animals and the natural environment. Many churches have Blessing of Animals services somewhere near October 4.

One prayer attributed to Francis begins “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace”. We can use this prayer to enrich our own prayer life. The video will offer you images to sit with as you pray the words of the familiar prayer. You may want to pause the video if a certain phrase is meaningful to you. Let the words and images, and music fill your heart and soul and bring you closer to God.

If you prefer, you can download the images from the video and use them in your praying.
(Music in the video is a bit patchy-it happens when going from one older technology to a newer one. My apologies.) 

What part of the prayer is most meaningful to you?

Lively Lent-Prayer

The baptismal service states we are to “persevere in resisting evil, repent and return to the Lord”. For many, that is the only thing Lent is about. “We have to repent because we are ‘terrible human beings’.” And repentance is important. If we think we are perfect and getting along just fine, we will start to think we don’t need God. Pausing and taking a look at our faults and our good attributes is important.

We aren’t supposed to wallow in our sin, though. The next step is to repent and turn around, stop doing things that we know aren’t really quite what God wants us to do. Quit acting in ways that are contrary to the mandate to “love one another as I have loved you”.

How do we do that? We take time to be with God who loves us, like a parent-a father or mother. We cuddle up in God’s arms and say, “I’m sorry and I’ll try to do better.” That’s called prayer. And some of us are intimidated by it.

Consider it conversation with God rather than some big report that you have to come up with and use fancy words in. Do you talk to your friends with ‘$100 words’? Or do you just chat? While conversation with God is maybe a bit more than an informal chat, it is still not something you have to prepare for. Just sit down and open your heart to the One who loves you more than you or I understand.

This Lent might be a time to try out a different prayer style or new prayer discipline. If it doesn’t feed your spirit and bring you closer to God, you can always abandon it. However, you may find a new route to conversation with God. An easy way to begin is by using the ACTS touchstone to pray (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication).

There are some other special disciplines that can help us focus in our praying. Last year, about this time, I posted a series of prayer aids on the Varieties of Gifts blog. You can check them out here.  Some suggestions are things like praying with the psalms, keeping a prayer journal, arrow prayers, 5 finger prayers and using a rosary. Other aids can be candles, walking, vigils and many others.

Sometimes we try a prayer discipline and it just doesn’t feel comfortable. We struggle while others rave about how great it is. Things like Centering Prayer and Journaling can be a good fit for some and difficult for others. That’s because we have different prayer personalities. These have fancy names like Augustinian and Ignatian, Thomistic, and Franciscan. If you know your Myers Briggs personality, you can look up which type might fit you here. Having said that, don't give up on something new after just one try-you may discover that sitting in the quiet of contemplative prayer or writing and drawing your thoughts in a journal are actually helpful-once you get used to the discipline.

Next time, we’ll take a look at one specific prayer and spiritual aid: Journaling. This isn’t something that everyone thinks they will like, but there are many ways to journal that don’t involve just writing pages and pages of your thoughts. Check back for some hints.