Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens,
your faithfulness to the skies.
6 Your righteousness is like the highest mountains,
your justice like the great deep.
You, Lord, preserve both people and animals.
7 How priceless is your unfailing love, O God!
People take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
8 They feast on the abundance of your house;
you give them drink from your river of delights.
9 For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light. Psalm 36
I didn’t grow up with the idea of the abundance of God…
I grew up with the fear of not enough ….
When you have the fear of not enough you cannot relax.
You live on high alert and you worry and compare yourself with other people.
It leads to anger that someone might have more than you do.
What if life isn’t a competition?
What if in the economy of God there is always enough?
What if we shared from all the abundance we’ve been given and if we take time to notice the gifts rather than the lack of things in our lives?
How different would we live? How different would we feel?
I have a developed a spiritual practice of noticing the gifts I call
“ Kitchen Counter Still Life”
I let the Holy Spirit speak to me through the simple things I find in my kitchen or around it. And use this as a springboard for prayer.
This week I bought some amazing blueberries …not only were they large, they tasted like REAL blueberries!
They tasted like summer and all the goodness of it!
These simple blueberries reminded me of the abundance of God! The abundant goodness in life.
Can you spot the Pitchers?
I also have open shelving in my kitchen that I like to decorate for the different seasons. In summer, I have a sunflower theme throughout my open plan kitchen/ living room/lounge area. A few things do not change with the seasonal decor. And that is the abundance of PITCHERS on these shelves! From where I sit writing, I can see five different water pitchers and a lovely enamel tea kettle! These are VISUAL reminders to me of the ABUNDANCE of GOD! I want to catch and receive that ABUNDANCE and LIVE in it rather than living in the land of NOT ENOUGH!
What reminds you of the ABUNDANCE of GOD?
It might be the abundant harvest from your garden, a fresh cut bouquet of flowers, or picking berries at a local field.
Take some time to consider how you are living in the land of not enough and how you can practice living in the land of GOD’s ABUNDANCE this week.
Receive the Abundance!
Put out a PITCHER as a reminder that Jesus wants to fill your life with Good Things! Jesus came that we might have LIFE and have it in ABUNDANCE!
The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly. JESUS
It’s hard to believe that we are almost half way through the year and that the summer solstice is now behind us. I love this season of long warm evenings and early morning wanders in the garden and make the most of the opportunities to drink in the beauty of God’s world and the wonder of all I see around me. Unfortunately, we are one of the few places in the U.S. that has had pleasant temperatures this week. Many of you are caught under the dome of intense heat scorching the U.S. and Canada. For some it followed devastating floods. My heart goes out to all those who are caught in the extreme weather conditions caused by climate change, not just on this continent, but all over the world.
This week has been a bit of a roller coaster for me. I started with a wonderful weekend getting my garden in order and admiring the slow growth of our tomatoes, squash and onions. I transplanted basil and pulled morning glory (bindweed) like fury. Did you know it can grow 12 inches in a day and burrows up to 20 feet below the ground? No wonder it seems ready to take over the world. I established new spiritual practices that will guide me through the summer and got caught up on correspondence I ignored while we were in Britain. So much to give thanks for.
However, yesterday I heard from my family that my oldest brother, who has been struggling with malignant melanoma for the last few years was admitted to hospital yesterday and the prognosis is not good. I appreciate your prayers. This is when it is very hard to have one’s family half a world away. As well as that, our 7 year old dog Goldie has a cancerous growth that I have a consultation about today. I expect surgery to be scheduled in the next couple of weeks. When life throws challenges like these at us, the comfort of faith makes a profound difference.
I find that the solstice celebrations are increasingly important to me, one of the anchors that helps to give my life stability in the increasing challenges of my personal life as well as of society as a whole. This week in Meditation Monday: Celebrating the Solstice Through Our Heritage. I look at some of the traditions for celebrating that come from my Greek heritage. Exploring these was both fascinating and encouraging. I heartily recommend that you too consider exploring your heritage to see what neglected traditions you could benefit from. The audio for this post is available through Substack for paid subscribers.
Last Wednesday we posted our tenth Liturgical Rebels Episode, a fascinating interview with Naomi Lawrence. I heartily recommend this episode to you, and if you have not yet connected to The Liturgical Rebels perhaps you would like to use the summer to get caught up. Check out all the interviews including Brian McLaren, Shane Claiborne and Scott Erickson here.
Many of you may have noticed that Godspacelight had very few posts this week. Many of our authors are taking a well deserved break after using their skills and their insights to sustain us through the onerous challenges of COVID. However you might like to check out a few past posts that are particularly pertinent to this season of the year. First, in case you missed St John the Baptist’s Day on June 24th, here is an excellent post Increase and Decrease, St John and the Summer Solstice by Jan Blencowe. As she says “This alignment of holy remembering and natural phenomenon is no accident.”
I love Lilly Lewin’s Freerange Friday Intentional Summer from last year. Her question “What will you need to do to actually feel refreshed by September, rather than more used up or burned out?” It is particularly thought provoking and her suggestions are excellent. I also recommend her Creating a Centerpiece for Summer Prayer. She is always so creative and helpful in her suggestions.
For another kind of intentionality, read Lisa De Rosa’s post Enjoying Summer with Creation Care in Mind. She challenges me to think through the environmental impact of each item I use over the summer and how I can choose to lessen my ecological footprint. A challenging and important post especially as climate change makes many of us very aware of our environmental impact.
If you are looking for a prayer to help orient you through the summer, I suggest this Litany for Summer by Fran Pratt.
You might also like to consider the importance of hospitality over the season, which for me his one of the most important aspects of the season. My favourite post which I love to reread and reflect on over the season is my Meditation Monday: Learning Hospitality from Psalm 23. https://godspacelight.com/
As you prepare for a new season, it is always good to plan and move with intentionality into the new joys and sorrows that it holds.
As you can imagine, Australia, the Southern Hemisphere and the dark of winter are very much on my mind even though here in Seattle we are entering summer. I thought I would share this prayer by Brother David Steindl-Rast for the winter solstice.
May you grow still enough to hear the small noises earth makes in preparing for the long sleep of winter, so that you yourself may grow calm and grounded deep within.
May you grow still enough to hear the trickling of water seeping into the ground, so that your soul may be softened and healed, and guided in its flow.
May you grow still enough to hear the splintering of starlight in the winter sky and the roar at earth’s fiery core.
May you grow still enough to hear the stir of a single snowflake in the air, so that your inner silence may turn into hushed expectation.
Many blessings on you and yours
Christine Sine
by Christine Sine
This weekend we celebrated the solstice. Summer solstice here in the Northern Hemisphere where the earth’s axis tilts towards the sun and we all bask in the glory of long sunny days and warm weather. Winter solstice in the Southern hemisphere where the earth is tilting away from the sun creating the short cold days of winter.
The solstice creates sacred moments celebrated around the world by many cultures for millennia. These celebratory days are an invitation to connect to the ways our people have celebrated this event in the past. This year I was inspired by Mary de Jong’s question “What are traditions within your heritage?” It made me realize how familiar I am with the heritage of the Scottish side of my family, but totally unconnected to the Greek side. So this year I set out to change that. I was fascinated by what I learned.
According to Catalyst Planet “the ancient Greeks have celebrated the solstice for at least 2,500 years. They celebrated the summer solstice as a time of equality. It also marked the beginning of the new year.
The importance of the summer solstice to the Greeks dates back to the creation of calendar systems, many of which were developed based on geographical region. For example, the Athenian calendar spanned from summer solstice to summer solstice, and the Delphic calendar began around the first new moon after the solstice.
This solar orientation led ancient Greek communities to develop new year celebrations around the summer solstice, the most prominent being the festival of Kronia. The celebration was devoted to Kronos, the father of Zeus, and was a harvest festival.
The festival of Kronia was unique because it temporarily diverged from the ancient Greek rigid social hierarchy. It marked a momentary freedom from class restraints where slaves and lords celebrated together, sometimes even reversing roles, in order to mimic Kronos’ “Golden Age” of equality and peace.
Wow! what a rich tradition. I love the idea of celebrating freedom from class restraints and providing an opportunity for people of all levels of society to celebrate together. Here in the U.S. we have just celebrated Juneteenth, a celebration designed to commemorate the end of slavery in the United States. However enslavement still happens – not just amongst the victims of the sex trade, but in the prison system where people work for, on average, less than a dollar an hour. I wonder what a day of freedom and equality could look like in our society today where there seem to be so many barriers between racial groups and those of diverse sexual orientation. How could we once more use the solstice as a time to break down barriers, not just for a day but for all time?
The solstice was also observed by the lighting of fires at crossroads. This practice allowed communities to purge their homes of waste by discarding items into the fire, and was representative of renewal. Furthermore, it was believed that jumping over these fires would allow hopes and dreams to come true.
Who doesn’t enjoy a good bonfire? Who doesn’t want to purge their homes of waste? Perhaps we can take a page out of the lives of my Greek ancestors and use this season as a time to clean out our homes of items that need to be discarded, maybe not throwing them in the fire, but seeing where we can donate them so they can be recycled or repurposed.
Discovering these celebrations that existed for thousands of years in the land of my ancestors gave me a renewed pride in my Greek heritage, which I must confess I tend to ignore. How about you? What is your ethnic heritage? What celebrations marked the solstice or other seasonal occurrences? In what ways do you still practice these? Are there new ideas that emerge that could enrich your seasonal celebrations as well as your appreciation of your heritage?
Uluru photo by Ondrej Machart
Alternatively you might like to look at the heritage of the place in which you live. How do First Nations people of your country celebrate the solstice? This question sent me hunting for information about how the aboriginal people of Australia observed the solstice. They were well attuned to the cosmos, though the decimation of their cultures by colonization means that little remains of their practices. The Wurdi Youang stone arrangement site in Wathaurong country near Ballarat in Victoria has shown through Carbon dating that the arrangement was made some 11,000 years ago. The stones were positioned to track the winter and summer solstice with three stones pointing to the summer equinox. This formation portrays a culture that was well-attuned to the timings of the cosmos and could utilize its movements to aid tribal living.
We are all enriched by the traditions of those who have gone before us especially by our ancestors and those who lived before us in the lands we inhabit.Exploring our heritage and the rich inheritance of the lands in which we live is a wonderful way to uncover more of the “image of God” present in all people. Let me know what you discover as you make this journey.
In Episode 10 Christine interviews Naomi Lawrence, a fiber artist known for her yarn bombing installations, shares her journey and the impact of her art on communities. She started yarn bombing in 2012 and has since brought joy and light to dark places through her crochet creations. Yarn bombing is a form of street art where objects in public spaces are covered with knitted or crocheted pieces. Naomi’s installations have evolved from guerrilla knitting to commissioned site-specific projects, often bringing together communities to create the artwork. She shares positive responses from people who have been touched by her installations, including stories of hope and transformation. Naomi’s faith plays a significant role in her art, as she sees it as a way to show love, bring beauty, and make the world a better place. She is part of Inner Change, a Christian order that focuses on living out their faith in their contexts. Naomi’s artwork is a reflection of her identity and brings her immense satisfaction and joy.
00:00
Introduction and Reconnecting
03:07
Discovering Yarn Bombing and Bringing Light to Dark Places
07:55
Yarn Bombing as a Form of Street Art
12:59
Faith and the Role of Art in Naomi’s Life
24:55
Community and Support for Naomi’s Art
Naomi Lawrence is a NYC Fiber Artist based in Harlem, NYC.
She works with acrylic yarn to create oversized 2-Dimensional crochet flowers, trees and wildlife. The site-specific installations are sewn onto chain-link fences in parks and public spaces.
Originally from England, UK she studied Floral Design at the University of Arts London and worked as a freelance events florist for some of Londons top floral designers.
Her first installation created in 2014, Blue Iris endeared her to the community that she now calls home. Her installations take a few months to create but are generally approved by the city to stay in place for up to one year. They are often washed and refurbished to be reinstalled in various locations such as school playgrounds. Public engagement is a primary goal of each installation. The works become part of the urban landscape.
You can contact Naomi at https://naomilawrence.com/ or https://www.instagram.com/naomilawrence.art/ or https://www.patreon.com/NaomiRAG
Home again and I finally feel as though my brain has caught up to my body and arrived in Seattle. Jet lag definitely gets worse the older we get but there are a few tricks I find help. First getting out into the garden, not a surprise as everything one reads about jet lag urges us to get out into the sunlight to help our clocks reset themselves. Second, taking time to sit in the presence of God and refocus myself really helps. My morning meditation time has been particularly valuable after this trip. Read scripture, praying and diving into the books I brought back have been very valuable in rooting my soul back into the present time.
I have also enjoyed reflecting on my experiences and allowing the spirit of God to speak to me through the precious times of encounter and exploration. So much for me to drink in and savour and I don’t want to let go of these experiences before I gleaning all that God wants me to. Part of the fruit of this I share in my Meditation Monday: Discovering a Thin Space in which I shared my reflections on Escomb Saxon Church near Durham in the north of England. This is indeed a very special place where one senses the presence of those on the other side of the veil between heaven and earth.
Part of what this trip encouraged me to do is to rethink and refocus my priorities. Many of you are already aware that I am moving much of my online activity to Substack, with three regular weekly posts – Meditation Monday, Keeping Up With the News on Wednesday and Spiritual Practice on Friday. These posts will alternate between a unique spiritual practice one week and a post about the latest Liturgical Rebels podcast episode the next. There may be additional posts about seasonal celebrations and online retreats as well. Most of the Meditation Monday posts and a few of the spiritual practices will also be available in audio form for paid subscribers. I find that Substack provides a versatility not possible on Godspace. However it does take time and I am still working out what is possible for me. I encourage you to become a paid subscriber as that is part of what enables me to find time to focus on my work on Substack and provide the spiritual practices that so many of you enjoy.
I appreciate your prayers as I discern God’s plan for me for the future. I have been approached by a publisher about writing another book, something which was already stirring in my heart, and still want to provide occasional online retreats, so life is very full and exciting.
So what is happening with Godspace? We will continue to post the Meditation Monday and Keeping Up With The News posts, and Lilly Lewin will post her Freerange Fridays as well, but the other posts might be less frequent. Many of our writers are changing their priorities and not writing as many blog posts for us. Some of the will be reposts of important articles from previous years. This last week we posted two of these – The Fatherheart of God posted in preparation for Father’s Day and as a counterpart to The Motherheart of God which we posted for Mother’s Day. We also reposted Yarnbombing Day by Naomi Lawrence, a very timely repost as it is an interview with Naomi Lawrence that is our new episode on The Liturgical Rebels, live today.
If you would like to join our writers’ community and feel you can contribute posts that are pertinent to the Godspace ethos please check out the guidelines https://godspacelight.com/
In Liturgical Rebels Episode 10 Christine interviews Naomi Lawrence, a fiber artist known for her yarn bombing installations, shares her journey and the impact of her art on communities. She works with acrylic yarn to create oversized 2-Dimensional crochet flowers, trees and wildlife. The site-specific installations are sewn onto chain-link fences in parks and public spaces.
Let me end with my discernment prayer for the week:
God of all creation,
Known yet unknowable,
Visible yet invisible,
Near yet far off,
Hold us close as we wander
Through the puzzles of this life.
Give us courage
To discern the path ahead
And walk the journey
You set before us.
Many blessings
Christine Sine
Episode 10 with Naomi Lawrence is now live!
by Christine Sine
I did not expect our trip to Britain to be one of such spiritual significance. Since we watched The Secrets of Britains Great Cathedrals during COVID, I longed to visit some of these impressive sites of worship. I loved the magnificence of Wells and Durham Cathedral and the specialness of Malmesbury Abbey. What I didn’t expect was the impact that the small Saxon church at Escomb would have on me. It has been a place of worship since the 7th century. It is small unassuming and humble, but it filled with the presence of God, a thin place where I almost felt I could reach through the veil to touch heaven. Evidently the Very Reverend John Habgood, former Bishop of Durham and Archbishop of York called it “The jewel in the crown of the Church of England.” (Thanks Derek Jago for this information)
Escomb church
Roof of Escomb church
Saxon cross behind altar
Celtic cross
There are no kings or queens or well known Celtic saints buried here, no ornate decoration to draw your attention but the whole sanctuary resonates with the voices of those ordinary people who worshipped there over the centuries. And those voices go back even further than the 7th century. The rounded part of the chancel arch was reassembled from the nearby fort of Vonovia and many of the stones both inside and outside the church bear the cross hatching which is typical of Roman stone work.
I love the carved Saxon cross behind the altar and wonder how many people over the century have used it to focus their presence on God and the wonder of faith.
We were privileged to attend a Celtic communion service there, something that now only happens once a month, but that has been celebrated in Escomb almost every week for over 1300 years. As I partook of the communion elements and sat in awe and reverence afterwards, it occurred to me that the greatest gems in God’s crown are like this – ordinary people worshipping in ordinary places with love and devotion.
Celtic Service bulletin
The service we used comes from the community of Iona on the West Coast of Scotland, a place that has been a spiritual home for us since we first visited it during our honeymoon 32 years ago. It was from Iona that, in the 7th century Christians came, spreading the faith throughout Scotland and into Northumbria. Linidsfarne Abbey on Holy Island was founded and from there many Christian communities including Escomb, grew. We were not able to visit Iona this time, so it was very special to be gifted with this place and this service that connected us back to our spiritual home.
I love the opening responses for our service and want to share them with you. You might like to find a comfortable place and three candles to light in the appropriate places as you read it. Close your eyes for a moment as you begin and imagine all those who stand and worship with you, that great cloud of witnesses throughout the ages who faithfully followed Jesus in their ordinary lives of devotion.
Leader: We light a light in the name of the Maker, who lit the world and breathed the breath of life for us…
We light a light in the name of the Son, who saved the world and stretched out his hand to us …
We light a light in the name of the Spirit, who encompasses the world and blesses our souls with yearning …
All: We light three lights for the Trinity of love: God above us, God beside us, God beneath us: the beginning, the end, the everlasting ones.
Prayer of Invocation:
Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest, stay with us.
With friend, with stranger, with young and with old, be among us here.
Come close to us. that we may come close to you.
Forgive us that we may forgive one another.
Renew us so that, where we have failed, we may begin again.
Amen
In the week before Mother’s day I posted meditations, prayers and creative ideas for helping us connect to maternal images of God and celebrate the mother heart of God. As we approach Father’s day here in the U.S. I realized how important it is for me to do the same for Father’s day.
I must confess this is much harder for me because I did not have a good relationship with my own father who was physically violent and domineering. Unfortunately I am aware that for many of us such experiences have tainted our view of our heavenly father too. And on top of that we have often been exposed to patriarchal sometimes warlike images of God the father, images that sometimes unconsciously make us feel that God is an angry, vindictive God who punishes us for every wrong doing.
As I meditated on my own views of God the father this week, I realized that central to my understanding of the father heart of God is my conviction that God is love. My image of God as a loving, caring father is still something that I am growing into however. I need constant reminders of God’s love for me expressed through forgiveness, compassion and provision. I need to spend time sitting in the presence of God, imagining myself a child on its parent’s lap. We all need to grow deeper into God’s love.
What is your response?
Listen to the Lord’s prayer
Sit quietly for a few minutes thinking about your own image of God the father. When you think about God as father what thoughts come to mind? Make a list of your impressions.
Now imagine yourself sitting on God’s lap, held in a loving embrace. Read through Paul’s wonderful treatise on love in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance.
Make a second list of the nature of love. Compare your two lists. Sit quietly again the presence of God allowing God’s love to wash over you. What images that you have of God the Father need to change? Offer a prayer for healing and restoration.
Now watch this video which explores some of the scriptures that giving expression to this loving, caring God.
Write your own Father’s love letter. What might God want to say to you at this time about your own impressions of God? Finish with a time of prayer
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