by Rev. Brenda Griffin Warren,
Do you love gardening and/or do you have hemorrhoids? Then St. Fiacre is the saint for you! Interestingly, he is also the patron saint of cab drivers in France. From about 1650, the Hotel de Saint Fiacre, in the rue St-Martin in Paris, hired out carriages that came to be known as fiacres, which became a generic term for hired horse-drawn transport, and then that designation was carried onto cabdrivers.
Fiacre (Fiacra, Fiachra) was born in the late 6th century into royalty in Connaught, Ireland, and was likely the son of a prince. He received an excellent education from St. Conan, at his monastery on the Isle of Man where he learned the art of herbal medicine. St. Conan was also known as Mochonna and had served as a monk at the historic Iona Abbey off the western coast of Scotland. In time Fiacre had his own hermitage and perhaps a monastery, possibly near St. Fiachra’s Well at Cill Fiachra (Kilferagh), near Bennetsbridge, County Kilkenny, Ireland.
This Irish hermit became so popular as both a soul and body doctor that he fled Ireland for France about 627, longing for solitude. Upon arrival in France, he became acquainted with a brother and sister who were of royalty and were faithful in serving God. Faro (Burgundofaro), was Bishop of Meaux, and his sister Burgundofara, was the founding Abbess of the famous Faremoutiers Abbey, a few miles from Meaux. Both Faro and Burgundofara had been blessed as children by the illustrious Irish St. Columbanus as he evangelized through France. Fiacre became close to these siblings and was granted a site at Brogillum (Breuil), in the province of Brie, France.
At his little hermitage in the forest, St. Fiacre grew vegetables and medicinal herbs to help feed and heal those who flocked to him for spiritual guidance and hospice care. He quickly realized he needed more space with all the folks who were coming to him for prayer and for miracles of healing, so he asked Bishop Faro for more land in the forest to expand his ministry. In response, Faro told him that he could have as much land as he could prepare in one day with a plough.
With miraculous speed, Fiacre quickly turned up the earth with the end of his pastoral staff using it as a plough, swiftly toppling tall trees and uprooting twisted briars and unwieldy weeds making way for his expanded ministry. A suspicious woman who spied this miraculous whirlwind of activity rushed to tell Bishop Faro that Fiacre was doing devilish incantations and witchcraft. However, when Bishop Faro sprinted to the area and saw for himself what had happened, he recognized that this was indeed the work of God. It is said that after that unpleasant experience, Fiacre who as an Irish monk, already was not too keen on women, prohibited females, on pain of severe bodily infirmity, from the precincts of his hermitage.
Fiacre’s ministry continued to flourish and he died of leprosy on August 30, 670, likely contracting this disease from caring for so many who were ill and sought refuge in his hospice. He was buried in his chapel in the forest not far from his hermitage and it is said that miracles took place at his tomb. His feast day is celebrated on several days in August and September.
Fiacre’s relics were preserved in his original shrine in the local church on the site of his hermitage, garden, and hospice, in the present-day village of Sainte-Fiacre, Seine-et-Marne, France. Later, in 1568, because of fear that fanatical Calvinists would harm his remains, they were transferred to their present shrine in Meaux Cathedral, which is near Saint-Fiacre.
Interestingly, his feast day has become a favored occasion for gardening groups and fraternities in France and Belgium to hold their annual jamborees. Some of these celebrations are huge affairs with thousands of people on the street with festively decorated floats and wheelbarrows. Fiacre is still so well-loved in spite of his disdain for women (hopefully over 1,400 years in heaven has softened his view of females) that there is even an international association, the “Comite Des Fetes Nationales Et Internationales Saint-Fiacre” to promote such events as well as pilgrimages to sites associated with this saint. A garden was even named after him to celebrate the Second Millennium, “Saint Fiachra’s Garden” which opened in 1999 at the Irish National Stud and Gardens, Tully, County Kildare, Ireland.
Yes, we can see why Fiacre was the patron saint of gardeners and taxi cab drivers, but still not too sure why he is such a popular saint with those with hemorrhoids.
_________________
There is an abundance of information on St. Fiacre (Fiacra/Fiachra) in John O’Hanlon’s Lives of the Irish Saints. Volume 8. August 30. Archive.org.
The Garden Trust has a good article with photos and pictures based upon the life of St. Fiacre.
If you are interested in the lives of other Celtic and Anglo-Saxon saints, please visit my website at http://www.saintsbridge.org/.
The Spirituality of Gardening Online Course is available for 180 days of access for only $39.99. This interactive course includes video sessions with Christine Sine as well as 8 other guest gardeners. Visit our store page for more information.
By Edward Goode,
A Sacred Summer
Is it ok for me to say that the summer of 2020 sucked? To say that it wasn’t the best really is an understatement. “Sucked” seems like a perfectly appropriate word. There were all the “macro” things going on – pandemic, racial unrest, and protests, the incredibly divisive and difficult election cycle that we couldn’t get away from – all this on top of everything else that “normally” happens in our world. The pandemic, however, affected so many other things – weddings that had to be rescheduled, postponed, or radically changed. Funerals that were only for a small group of the closest family members, churches that were only gathering online, So, summer of 2020 sucked.
Fast forward to early 2021. Lilly Lewin, Joanna Cummings, Ginny Olson, and I started looking back at 2020 and then looking ahead to summer 2021 and decided that we needed a different “S-word” for the upcoming summer. No not that “S-word”… A different one.
Sacred.
Stop for a moment and read that word again.
Maybe read it out loud with a deep breath on either side of your speaking it.
Sacred.
After all the times of talking about how the summer of 2020 (in fact most of 2020 it feels like) sucked, we really felt that we needed to work on how we could make the time ahead truly…
Sacred.
Isn’t that a beautiful word?
Sacred.
How does it make you feel when you read it? See it? Speak it? Hear it?
For me, it feels like one of those cool misters that you walk through somewhere on a brutally hot August afternoon. Suddenly, the heat goes away and refreshment and renewal spring forth.
Sacred.
So we began to explore different ideas of what would make a summer sacred. Rest… Gratitude… Justice… Nature… Play… Silence… Love… Create. We also brought in Grief to acknowledge and honor what had been lost in the preceding summer that wasn’t so sacred.
LOVE
It was beautiful to explore these themes in the congregation where I serve as pastor. Some of the most significant moments came as I sat around a circle with seven others and introduced them to Lectio Divina while another group simply spent time talking with one another and a third drew, colored, and painted – all practices of sacred rest. Another night, plans were all laid out until a family situation arose for me and one of the participants jumped in and seamlessly led a discussion of what sacred justice means in our journeys of faith. And from our gratitude week, our wall of post-it gratitudes continues to grow!
But maybe the most meaningful point for me came at the end when we took time to Create. In starting out, several in the group shared that they didn’t feel they were very creative. They shared how they were creative as kids but as the years passed, their creativity waned. What was beautiful was what happened next. We gathered around a table, each starting with a blank page. I invited each to sit in stillness for a few minutes and then to write down the first word about God that came to them. After they were finished, I asked them to pass their page to the person on their left who would then respond with whatever came to their hearts. This continued all the way around the table until we each got our original pages back. It was beautiful to see the different creative expressions that emerged.
HOPE
So, here’s how this becomes more than just a report of what one church did. In this post are some of the creative expressions that emerged. Print off one (or all) of them and reflect on what you would add? What picture would you draw? What color comes to your heart and mind? What other words express what is stirring?
Even though summer is winding down as kids are going back to school (although the heat doesn’t feel like we’re anywhere close to Autumn yet), the sacred-ness of this time is still with us.
Beyond just Create, each of the themes of a sacred summer can become practices for a sacred Autumn or Winter. In fact, each theme is a part of the life of faith. Each day can be a day of gratitude, rest, love, justice, and so forth. Each day is…
Sacred.
Make each season and each day SACRED
Edward Good is a pastor and creative living in Cincinnati, OH and he is part of the FreerangeWorship Team! Find out more about Ed and his contemplative photography on his website IMAGOSCRIPTURA.com
The Sacred Summer Kit Ed’s church used is a downloadable resource available for individuals, small groups and church communities…check out freerangeworship.com
ALMIGHTY
all the things
HELP
The next session of Facebook Live with Christine Sine and Lilly Lewin is September 8, 2021! Join us at 9am PST on the Godspace Light Community Group on Facebook. If you missed the last session, check out the recording on YouTube.
by Carol Dixon,
Now that summer appears to be waning in NE England and damp and drizzle herald approaching autumn I decided to look through some of my photos of flowers to remind me of the beauty I have enjoyed during the past few months from the dainty garden flowers (including our golden wedding rose) the common ordinary ones we often refer to as weeds in our local country park to the exotic beauty of the flowers in the tropical gardens on Tresco.
I also thought about some of the poems I had written over the years across the seasons.
DANDELIONS
smiling in the sun;
the glory
of their golden heads
defying
the label ‘Weed’
Clocks
turning to thistledown,
dancing
like fairies, borne on
evening
air – wispy seeds
creating
DANDELIONS
POPPIES
By a farmer’s field near Denwick
A patch of poppies grow,
A flash of brightest scarlet
They set the view aglow,
While their delicate tall neighbours
In a lovely deep cerise
Enhance the golden landscape
With their glorious sense of peace.
PANSIES (pensees) in France
Purple pansies shivering in a pot,
the early sunlight on their smiling faces
defying the frosty earth;
velvet petals, cold to the touch,
silky soft, promises of summer…….
Memories of warmer days in Italy and France:
red-barned farm in the Suisse Normande,
chattering chickens and voluble farm wives,
excited dogs and solid farmers
in blue overalls, leisurely leaning
across the fence for an afternoon smoke:
‘B’jour m‘seur, m’dame,’
with the quiet courtesy of the country kind;
And a solitary cross in pitted stone –
purple pansies at its foot –
remembrance of young men lost
in battles long forgotten.
DAFFODILS
Upon the hills, the daffodils
trumpet an Easter blessing;
their multi-faceted faces
framed by spear-shaped sepals
gleaming golden in the sun,
bonny as Easter bonnets
bobbing in Pace-procession.
Below the hill, the daffodils
quiver, like frilly yellow tutus
in the motion of the dance,
while the soft wood wind ruffles
budding trees, gently rousing
from their winter sleep.
By woodland ways and fold
of hills, the dancing daffodils,
herald the splendour of the Spring;
their bold, bright beauty proclaiming
to the waiting, waking world:
‘Come alive!’
EARLY SUMMER
Sitting in the sunshine
eating melon, showered
with cherry blossom petals
– a summer snowstorm;
Watching the flakes
covering the cloth
like confetti,
dead fly swimming
in tea cup…
time to go fishing.
SUNFLOWERS
Sunflowers – tall and straight,
yellow faces beaming in the rain,
speaking of golden glory
smiling through tears,
memories of summer sunlight
living on till autumn days;
heads shaken by the disturbing breeze,
gently rocking – unperturbed,
promise of radiant life
and summer days, gone
but not forgotten.
As I pondered on the pictures and read through the poems I had written, it made me think of how barren our world would be without the beauty of flowers which reminded me of a children’s hymn I learned when my kids were young: Think of a world without any flowers which seems even more apt in these days when we are thinking of climate change.
In autumn I miss the flowers but there is still much to praise God for and I am blest to see the changing leaves in their glorious array of colours and on crisp dry days still enjoy the childish pastime of scrunching through the heaps of fallen leaves under the trees with my grandchildren as we search for conkers.
A carpet of autumn leaves – photo by Omid Armin on Unsplash.com
Many years ago, my family bought me a book that reflects the changing seasons in our lives. It is called ‘For everything a season’, from the book of Ecclesiastes – which I don’t often read- but the famous passage from which it takes its title gives me much food for thought as I ponder on it.
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 (New Living Translation)
For everything there is a season,
A time for every activity under heaven.
A time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant and a time to harvest.
A time to kill and a time to heal.
A time to tear down and a time to build up.
A time to cry and a time to laugh.
A time to grieve and a time to dance.
A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
A time to search and a time to quit searching.
A time to keep and a time to throw away.
A time to tear and a time to mend.
A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
A time to love and a time to hate.
A time for war and a time for peace.
This autumn in my life, I have a few different things coming up – replacement knee surgery which will make walking easier in the future, a cataract removed from my eye so I will be able to see more clearly, and hopefully another injection in my right middle finger (which will make writing & typing much easier!). The waiting time has been difficult and I am not looking forward to being incapacitated for a few weeks but once I have recovered I hope that the new ‘season’ in my life will give me a better quality of life by the time the season changes again I may be skipping along the woods with my grandchildren and able to see the insects in their bug garden!
photo by Carol Dixon
In many ways the changing seasons give us great hope as we reflect on God’s faithfulness to us in all the seasons of our lives as an old hymn we used to sing in church reminds us:
Through all the changing scenes of life? (Click the link to view Youtube video)
by Rev. Brenda Griffin Warren,
Image of St. Ninian of Whithorn preaching to the Picts of Scotland in the 15th c. manuscript,
Book of the Hours of the Virgin and Saint Ninian [EUL MS 42] in the University of Edinburgh Library.
NINIAN OF WHITHORN
Feast Day, August 26/September 16
Encircling Prayer
On this 26th day of August, we meet Bishop St. Ninian of Whithorn. He is considered to be the first apostle to Scotland.
Ninian, also known as Ringan and Trynnian, was a very industrious apostle, missionary, and Bishop, to say the least! Ninian evangelized not only the southern Picts who lived in western Scotland, but he also preached throughout southern Scotland, south of the Grampian Mountains, and conducted preaching missions, as far north as the Moray Firth. It is possible that he preached as far south as the Lake District of England.
Ninian’s famous monastery that he founded was at Whithorn, located in Southwest Scotland, and is considered by some to be the “cradle of Scottish Christianity.” Whithorn may have originally been named Candida Casa as in Latin it means, “white or shining house.” In Old English, this was translated as whit æurn from which was derived Whithorn. It is said that Whithorn was built of stone painted a gleaming white which was reminiscent of the Roman churches cloaked in marble.
Ninian was born about 360AD, most likely in the area now known as Cumbria in Northwest England, perhaps near the city of Carlisle and Hadrian’s Wall built by the Romans. His father was either a priest or the chief of a local tribe that held land on both sides of the Solway Firth, a narrow inlet of the sea that forms part of the border between England and Scotland.
It seems that Ninian, like many of the other Celtic saints, must have been a lover of nature and creation. Edward Sellner in his Wisdom of the Celtic Saints records the story of St. Ninian and his encircling prayer. St. Ninian liked to visit his flocks and the huts of his shepherds. He wanted the flocks of sheep to also be partakers of the blessings like humans were. When the animals were gathered together in one place at the end of the day, Ninian raised up his hand and prayed that they would all be protected by God. Then he went around the flock and with his staff, drew a circle around them, praying that all within that circle would be safe.
As we are in a time of pandemic in which over 4.4 million have died worldwide as of August 2021 and some of those surviving this horrific Covid disease are sadly being left with lifetime disabilities. Pastors, church leaders, parents, grandparents, siblings, pharmacists, EMS, along with a huge contingent of medical personnel and hospitals are particularly overwhelmed and exhausted with all the extra care and services that they are providing during this pandemic. We will also remember those who are ill with Covid and those who have heartbreakingly lost loved ones to this devastating illness. This would be an appropriate time for all of us to encircle them in our prayers for strength, wisdom, courage, healing, hope, comfort, and protection.
Caim/Encircling Prayer
Circles have always been important to the Celts. Even the early medieval Celtic and Anglo-Saxon monasteries were often placed inside a circular enclosure as St. Ninian’s Whithorn Monastery likely was.
Encircling prayers, also known as caim prayers, are especially dear to the soul of the Celts. The word caim is a Gaelic word derived from the root word for “circle” and for “turn.”
These encircling prayers are often used to pray for protection and healing and are certainly appropriate for each of our lives and our world during this unusual time in modern-day history.
As you pray a caim prayer as St. Ninian did, draw an imaginary circle clockwise with your index finger around yourself or around the person or group of people or pets for whom you are praying. You can stay in one place and circle with your finger or you can physically turn your body clockwise as you pray and point with your index finger. Here is an example of how you might pray a caim/encircling prayer:
Encircling Prayer
(Caim Prayer)
Circle (name of person, pet, hospital, organization), Lord.
Keep (name the good you want or desire) near and
(name the problem/disease to be removed) afar.
Circle (name), Lord.
Keep comfort near and discouragement afar.
Keep peace and protection within and turmoil out.
Circle (name), Lord.
Keep hope within and despair without. Amen.
May St. Ninian’s prayerful influence continue to be felt in our world that is in desperate need for healing, hope, and the good news that we are infinitely loved and cherished by the God of the universe.
If you would like to learn more about St. Ninian and other Celtic and Anglo-Saxon saints, you are invited to click on the link to my site, www.saintsbridge.org
Embark on this healing journey with Christine Sine, Lilly Lewin, and Bethany Dearborn Hiser with the Time to Heal Online Course. Each session is lead by one of our instructors and allows you 180 days of access for only $39.99. The goal of this course is to provide time, space, and tools to work toward healing.
post and photos by June Friesen August 2021,
38-40… Jesus entered a village. A woman by the name of Martha welcomed him and made him feel quite at home. She had a sister, Mary, who sat before the Master, hanging on every word he said. But Martha was pulled away by all she had to do in the kitchen. Later, she stepped in, interrupting them. “Master, don’t you care that my sister has abandoned the kitchen to me? Tell her to lend me a hand.” 41-42 The Master said, “Martha, dear Martha, you’re fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing only is essential, and Mary has chosen it—it’s the main course, and won’t be taken from her.”
In today’s world, we have had to take some time the past 18 months and slow down… in fact, about 16 months ago, life came to a halt pretty much worldwide and humanity was slowed down like they had not been in a very long time. It did not take long until people were bored, frustrated, anxious,… some became angry, defiant, while others cowered in fear.
CHANGE… we often talk about change yet do little to implement change. For much of humanity, we like and embrace certainty and predictable life. We are more comfortable that way.
As I think about the story of Mary and Martha, I often want to be like Mary yet my Martha traits tend to take over, and off I go. We are moving into change in nature presently… for some, it is a time of harvest and then the earth will take a rest. The plants will yield their harvests and humanity will gather, preserve and enjoy. For people, it, too, should be a time of slowing down as travel sometimes becomes a bit treacherous with weather conditions changing. This is when ‘Mary time’ becomes a gift one can embrace and allow the spirit to be nurtured and warmed as one allows the fire of God’s Spirit to prepare for new life to awaken in time.
For others, it is a time of new beginnings and fresh starts as the earth awakens once again. For people in these areas, it becomes a time of stretching, breathing deeply of the newness of life… watching eagerly for what is sprouting. This is also a time when one can embrace God’s presence in the gardens, the woods, the paths, the lakes… being encouraged to let God awaken one’s spirit to new life.
A few years ago I came upon this statue and I could not help but stop and stay awhile. I allowed myself to be this young woman… and this is what I heard Jesus say:
by June Friesen
COME – AND SIT A WHILE
Is your heart aching with unspoken pain?
Is there agony within that seems so controlling –
Holding you in bondage to the past you want to leave behind?
Is there no one you trust to share your deep pain?
Has there been continued condemnation time and time again?
Have the answers given seemed to roll off tongues
With little care or real understanding?
Answers like –
Trust and follow God – He will make it all better.
Or you just need to pray harder and it will go away.
Or just grow up and get over it.
Or that was years ago – you need to live in the today.
It really cannot be that bad and on and on.
Jesus truly will listen; that really is true –
But He also looks for those here on earth
Who are willing to share His listening, caring and understanding heart
With the broken, bleeding, deeply pained ones –
Offering hope, healing, unconditional love –
So that there can truly be genuine healing and growth that is real.
As you ponder the truth of Jesus’ teaching
Where we are called to love Him
And then love all others as we love ourselves –
The call is to not make excuses
But rather yield to the Spirit to make you the person God wants you to be.
Come my friend and sit with Jesus and tell Him your story.
Come my friend and offer to sit with another encouraging them to tell their story.
Come my friend and take the hand of another offering hope, unconditional love
To promote life healing within their spirit as well.
Come my friend……sit…..listen…….care…….love.
You will be glad you did.
(Friesen 2015)
God, please allow each one of us to embrace the season of life that is at hand for us whether in nature or whether in our spirits. Help us to embrace each moment as You choose to move our spirits through the changing process. Amen.
Register and pay to join us for this virtual retreat experience with Christine Sine and Lilly Lewin on September 25, 2021 from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm PST. For more details, click on the image below.
guest post and photos by Kaisa Stenberg-Lee,
When the pandemic hit our corner of the world, we had recently moved to a new home and were only beginning to get to know our neighbors. To our surprise, we received messages from people next to us and across the street reaching out for connection and support. All through the pandemic, our neighbors continued to be an incredible gift to us.
My husband and I have always loved long evening walks in whatever neighborhood we lived in. During the pandemic, our walks were sprinkled with friendly greetings by by-passers and my regular stops by the many Little Free Libraries along the way. More often than not, we returned home with new book treasures and with the much needed real-life connection with the outside world. I was especially thankful for our neighbors’ generous book-sharing when the public library had to close their doors for a period of time.
It was inspiring to see the generosity, creativity, and care of so many around me. I found little seed and vegetable sharing boxes, free little art galleries, art and craft material-sharing boxes, blessing boxes, little free food pantries, hope-filled art murals, paper hearts on windows, chalk rainbows on sidewalks, encouraging garden signs, and more. They were popping up all around the city!
As a spiritual director, crafter and writer, I spend much of my time listening to God with people from all over the world and sharing prayer practices and tools with others. When the pandemic hit, like many others, all of my work moved to behind screens. And while my community expanded greatly, reaching many parts of the world, I also lost physical felt-nearness with the local, praying community. I longed to share the gift of communal, tangible prayers with my neighbors.
Over the past several years, I discovered that I enjoy praying the most while I am creating with my hands, and walking or bicycling. Connection to my body’s movement and creativity have become rich pathways to prayer. As I have nurtured these practices in my own life, they have found their way into my work as a spiritual director, especially as a praying companion to children. Children have been the most generous and faithful guides for me in this journey of learning to pray with my body and listening to my body in prayer.
As a listening companion to children, I have been on a journey of crafting prayer spaces and prayer playthings that draw the eyes and hands of a child like a magnet, and that come with a sign “The kingdom of God is at hand. Please touch!”. [1]
I began to wonder, what it would be like to create a tiny prayer space in our neighborhood that would attract children and adults alike to pause, wonder and touch? A place for connectedness, play, and rest. A kind of “pilgrimage trail post” along the ordinary walk in the neighborhood, where we may encounter an invitation to listen to our own longing for God in a way that it could be touched, felt inside, and expressed.
As we begin to reconnect in this post-pandemic period, part of the healing is the work of rebuilding attachment to our geographical place, culture, and the people closest to our home. There is great value and significance in our engagement with the place and culture we live in. Humans are the happiest and healthiest when they live in communities where they are known. Our bodies were made to feel the felt sense of other bodies, nature, and places.
Some ways we can rebuild trust, create safety, and foster intimacy with the place we find ourselves in are: get to know the names of our neighbors, take regular walks in the streets surrounding our home, visit local businesses, learn about the history, culture, and traditions of the people who inhabited in the past and currently inhabit our environment, study and protect the native wildlife and vegetation, and honor the stories and traditions surrounding us.
In my own search for a deeper connection with the physical community I inhabit, I decided to create a Little Free Prayer Library ― a neighborhood prayer-sharing box for children and adults, right in front of our home. And in fact, even the building of it became a community effort as one of our skilled neighbors offered us his help in installing the library in our front yard!
I wonder, how are you rediscovering your calling and commitment to the place and people who you live amongst?
Denver-locals, please pop by our Little Free Prayer Library any time! I can’t wait to start sharing prayers with you!
And if you feel inspired to start your own Little Free Prayer Library, I would love for you to join me in encouraging children and adults to pray everywhere, anytime, and in every way, by spreading tiny sidewalk prayer-sharing boxes in communities around the world.
You can find more resources and inspiration at www.kutsucompanions.com/little-free-prayer-library. Follow hashtags #LittleFreePrayerLibrary and #OurPrayingHands on Instagram and check out @KutsuCompanions profile. If you create your own Little Free Prayer Library make sure to tag @KutsuCompanions so Kaisa can share your images with others in her stories!
Links & Resources
Books
- [1] Please Touch by Peter A. McMahon and Edwin M. Campbell
- My Monastery Is A Minivan: Where the Daily Is Divine and the Routine Becomes Prayer by Denise Roy
- The Art of Neighboring: Building Genuine Relationships Right Outside Your Door by Dave Runyon and Jay Pathak
- The Gift of Wonder: Creative Practices for Delighting in God by Christine Aroney-Sine
- Hello, Neighbor!: The Kind and Caring World of Mister Rogers by Matthew Cordell (Picture Book)
- What Grew in Larry’s Garden by Laura Alary (Picture Book)
- Maybe God Is Like That Too by Jennifer Grant (Picture Book)
- Outside, Inside by LeUyen Pham (Picture Book)
This blog article was originally written for and published at Companioning Center. It was skillfully edited by Audre Rickard. You can reach Audre via her website for Spiritual Companioning editing services at: www.audrerickard.com.
Bio for Kaisa Stenberg-Lee
Kaisa Stenberg-Lee is a Finland native, and a recent Colorado resident. Prior to moving to Denver, she served as a children’s and family pastor at an international church in Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. She is a trained spiritual director, and currently offers one-with-one spiritual direction, retreats, and workshops for children and adults through her private practice, Kutsu Companions. You can learn more about Kaisa and her ministry at: www.kutsucompanions.com, and connect with her on social media @KutsuCompanions.
Want to experience more of the awe and wonder that God offers us? Check out the Gift of Wonder Online Retreat by Christine Sine. This retreat allows for 180 days of access for only $39.99 so you can move through the sessions at your own pace.
by Christine Sine,
This morning, I walked around one of my favourite parks called The Reservoir park because it is built over our local water reservoir. I smiled at the sign by one of the sunken rain gardens proclaiming “restoration in progress”. I walk past this sign almost every day, peer curiously at the garden it guards, but never notice any change. Further around the walk, in another similar garden and this morning there was a man hard at work. Still, no changes were obvious but maybe restoration is just beneath the surface. When it is complete, I still may not see any difference.
Restoration in progress – gardener at work – photo Christine Sine
I came home, looked outside my office window, and stared in amazement. The huge maple a couple of blocks away has a red streak in its canopy. I watch this tree change every year and that change always begins this same red streak. It is the harbinger of change, the heralder of what will come. In a few weeks, the tree will blaze in a magnificent display of glorious red autumn colours like a lantern attracting all to its beauty.
Maple changing colour – photo Christine Sine
What a contrast and so reflective of the changes God undertakes in our lives and our world. Change can happen quickly or slowly.
Some change, like that in the Reservoir garden is so slow we are not aware of it. When it happens the changes fit seamlessly into the fabric of our being or of our society and unless we look closely we still cannot see the change.
I reflect back on my own life, awed by the changes I see that fit into this category. From the wrinkles in my skin to the growing closeness of Jesus in my heart, most changes happened slowly and often imperceptibly, especially the changes in my spiritual growth. This morning, I made a list and offered a prayer of gratitude to God. The next step will be talking to a good friend who probably noticed more change than I did. Good to get her thoughts on this and write them down so that when I see something I know still needs changing, I will not get too disheartened. It is so easy to fixate on the bad and not notice the good.
What transformations are you aware of in your life that happened so slowly you hardly noticed them?
Some transformation happens quickly in a flash of brilliant colour no one could miss. Like my conversion experience, my marriage, different stages of ministry from medical practice to contemplative activist. These changes I have no trouble identifying but I still write them down. Wow, there are so many of them! So many times God stepped in with a spectacular display of power and transformed me. These changes often meant a change of location or vocation. These too I am grateful for. Not all of them were easy. Illness played a big part in major changes in my life but it is important to document them all.
What changes in your life happened in a spectacular burst of colour?
Overall a pattern emerges – spiritual changes slow, life changes fast. Ha! I want to reverse that! Why can’t the spiritual changes happen quickly I wonder?
Then my eyes drift to my latest contemplative garden, my “God’s eyes guide me” garden. Last week I turned it around so the plants will not become lopsided as they reach for the sunlight. In the process, I obscured my “God’s eyes guide me” sign. It’s still there. God’s eyes still guide me, but I can’t see them. That’s how God works, I thought. There are times when I am oblivious to God’s guidance and the sweet companionship of Jesus. Perhaps I even resent the change on the horizons, as I do when the days shorten and the temperature drops.
There is a certain relentless love to God’s guidance. It guides through all the good and the bad. It guides in spite of our determination to ignore it or choose our own path. It guides us through all the quiet and the sudden changes, the changes we think we understand and those we know we don’t.
Thank God for guidance and above all for the love that inspires it. Yes, “restoration in progress” and I thank God for it.
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