by Carol Dixon, photos by Carol Dixon unless specified,
People these days often refer to trees as the lungs of the planet but I wonder if they realise how they can heal human beings too.
When I was young, I spent a lot of my time in woods near my home. Sometimes I was with friends as we climbed trees, made dens, swung on homemade swings hung from branches, or played hide and seek. At either times I would go on my own and search for acorns, look at the intricate patterns on different leaves, feel the bark on the tree trunks, or my favourite pastime of all – lying on the grass looking up at the sky through the tree canopy, seeing the sun dancing through the leaves and listening to the birds singing. Even now as an adult walking through woodland, I love listening to the rustle of the leaves and the murmuring of the breeze in the branches, as though the trees were whispering to each other – and I enjoy sharing these magical moments with my grandchildren.
I didn’t know it then but when I wandered through the trees soaking up the variety and beauty of the woods, I was ‘forest bathing’, an activity that has become very popular in the UK in the past few years and has been advocated for health & healing. For those who haven’t come across it before, it is a way of submerging yourself in nature to promote mindfulness and well-being. The Japanese practice of – literally, forest bath – is reputed to have the power to counter illnesses. It is an opportunity for people to take time out, slow down and connect with nature. Although people have been taking walks in forests for centuries, new studies believe that such activity may reduce blood pressure, improve concentration & memory and aid sleep, and a chemical released by trees and plants, called phytoncides, was found to boost the immune system.
An advocate of the practice states ‘We are designed to be connected to the natural world, to “listen to the wind and taste the air”. When you embark on forest bathing make sure you have left your phone and camera behind. You are going to be walking aimlessly and slowly. You don’t need any devices. Let your body be your guide. Listen to where it wants to take you. Follow your nose. And take your time. It doesn’t matter if you don’t get anywhere. You are not going anywhere. You are savouring the sounds, smells and sights of nature and letting the forest in. People initially think they’ve been doing this all their lives: going for a walk in the woods. But it might be a brisk walk, or you might be worrying about where the dog has got to. A better way to frame forest bathing is mindful time spent under the canopy of trees for health and
well-being purposes.’
Some trees are very special and leave a lasting impact. There have been many special trees in my life: In Alnwick Garden in my home town, is the very old tree I used to visit with my grandmother who told me that she played beside it as a child. (I even wrote a story about it for my grandchildren).
There is also the ancient oak over 400 years old that grows beside the Rock Mill burn on the farm where my husband grew up, the copper beech he planted as a small child with his mother and the Rabbit Tree, an old hollow tree where he and his brothers used to watch the rabbits running up the inside to sit on the branches (I didn’t believe him until I saw it for myself when we were courting!) Last year, we celebrated our Golden Wedding by planting a tree beside the lake nearby where we got engaged over 51 years ago.
Regardless of what season it is there is something to savour. I love the burgeoning buds on the tips of branches in spring, the variety & glorious profusion of trees in full leaf in summer, the myriad colours of autumn trees as you crunch through the fallen leaves looking for conkers and sometimes my favourite of all – the stark beauty of tree silhouettes against the winter sky. The whole life cycle of trees fascinates me. I belong to an ecumenical prayer fellowship called the Companions of Brother Lawrence who try to practice the presence of God in everyday life. One of my favourite stories about him is his conversion which happened through seeing a bare tree in winter blossoming into full bloom in spring. This is how he
described it: “In winter, seeing a tree stripped of its leaves and considering that within a little time the leaves would be renewed and after that the flowers and fruit appear, he received a high view of the Providence and Power of GOD which has never since been defaced from his soul. This view had perfectly set him loose from the world and kindled in him such love that he could not tell whether it had increased in above 40 years that he had lived since.” (from Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God)
Trees have been important to human beings all through history and are mentioned in the Bible from the very beginning in the Creation story in Genesis where we read of the Tree of life and the forbidden tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden, to the end in the book of Revelation which tells of the tree whose leaves are for the healing of all nations that flows by the river of life. What a beautiful picture that conjures up.
Image by Jplenio (from pixabay, free image)
Some years ago, I wrote a reflection on the wonderful amazing power of a tree from its ‘birth’ from a tiny seed to the great towering giant it becomes over the centuries. It was called Faith in a nutshell – a meditation on a beechnut (Good Ground – Reflection on new growth in old places – Godspacelight). Recently, I have been reflecting on it again – on the mind-blowing thought that from just a small seed such a majestic tree could come. For me, thinking of the tiny seed buried in the earth, battling its way out of the darkness, and the small fragile sapling surviving winter gales to become a strong and sturdy tree is such a hopeful symbol of our lives, strengthened by the Holy Spirit rising from difficulties and despair to new life, healed and restored by God. The woods are even a good place to weep in times of sadness and feel the embrace
of the encircling trees which have stood through many storms over the centuries. As we walk with Jesus through the austerities of Lent, we can look forward to the re-creation of our lives and our world, currently imprisoned by the coronavirus pandemic, finally free to meet and mingle with one another again. Truly an Easter blessing.
The woodland nearest to where I live is relatively new. It was planted about 15 years ago on the site of a former opencast mine by lads from a young offenders’ prison in the area. Each day during lockdown as I walk among these young trees, I rejoice that this former industrial site has blossomed into a place of beauty and I give thanks for those young men, most of whom are now free having served their sentences, whose hard work helped to transform a waste land into something restful and renewing for our village to enjoy.
Image by kretktz (from pixabay, free image)
Birch Copse
Walking from the sombre shadow
of towering trees, the encroaching
curtain of darkness parted,
revealing a slash of light;
a grassy glade, peppered
with forget- me- knots
beckoned; tiptoeing
into the secret space,
I trod tentatively,
as if entering an unfamiliar
holy place, where angels’
feet had brushed the ground,
heard the rustle of wind,
or wings, and found
just what I needed –
a welcome time of rest,
and re- creation.
©Carol Dixon (Published on Places of Poetry website 2019)
It isn’t always possible to walk among the trees and when I am stuck in the house for whatever reason I like to listen to a piece of music called ‘Pachelbel – Forest Garden’ by Robert J. Hemmer and imagine myself taking a walk with Jesus through a wood and I feel so much better afterwards. If you can’t go outside and walk in woodland or talk to a tree you may like to lose yourself in a forest for a few moments as you listen.
(there is a natural break after 8 minutes if you haven’t time to listen to it all)
Gift of Wonder, Breath, and Celtic prayer cards are all on sale as we look forward to St. Patrick’s Day!
Take advantage of this sale now through March 17th.
by Christine Sine
On March 17th, we celebrate St Patrick’s Day, and for me it is a great time to celebrate the many ways in which this stream of Christianity has enriched my life.
One of my favourite places in the world is the island of Iona off the west coast of Scotland. It seems so remote now, requiring a journey from Glasgow by train, ferry, bus and another ferry to get there. At one time, when most long distance travel was done by sea, it was a thriving centre of spirituality and education. It was here in the 6th century that the Celtic saint Columba settled after being exiled from Ireland. And it was also here that the famous Book of Kells was probably written.
Iona cross with Bishop’s house in distance
My husband, Tom, took me to Iona on our honeymoon 29 years ago, sharing with me not just a place but a Christian tradition that was very special to him. My imagination was ignited by this ancient faith perspective which thrived from the fifth to eighth century and was responsible for the spread of Christianity from Ireland through Scotland, England and much of Western Europe. It offered so much of what I craved—an intense sense of the presence of God, a spirituality that permeated every part of life and a love for creation as a reflection of the character of God. It is possible that St. Francis of Assisi was strongly influenced by the Irish monks who established a chapel near Assisi.
Scottish theologian, Prof John Macquarrie observed that “the Celt was very much a God-intoxicated person whose life was embraced on all sides by the divine Being.” I long for that same intoxication and intimacy with God.
The primary site for worship, pastoral care and religious instruction for Celtic Christians was the monastery not the parish church. This strongly monastic character produced a model of ministry that was communitarian rather than individualistic.
A common misconception is that these early Celtic monks fled to the wilderness and devoted themselves to prayer, fasting and other extreme activities. However, usually, these settlements lay at the crossroads of major travel routes, whether by sea (as in the case of Iona) or land (like Clonmacnoise on the banks of the river Shannon, in Ireland). They were intentional about living the God-filled life at the heart of contemporary culture and business.
These monastic communities were open to a constant stream of visitors, pilgrims and penitents. They were intimately involved in the affairs of the world and the lives of the people they served. The monks were not just concerned with the spiritual wellbeing of the communities they served but also with their intellectual and physical wellbeing. They were also, in many ways, the keepers of culture and tradition, not just copying the Psalms and Gospels but also writing down stories, songs, and poems and preserving myths and legends for posterity.
The Celts approached God with awe, reverence and wonder, but also saw God as an essentially human figure intimately involved in all creation and engaged in a dynamic relationship with it. This interweaving of intimacy and mystery embraced the Trinity as a family, and each human family unit (be it family, clan or tribe) was seen as an icon of the Trinity. The Trinity was a very real presence in all aspects of life and creation, and an almost tangible Comforter and Protector who could ward off evil forces. We see this theological perspective reflected in this simple prayer.
Prayer trail Camano Island
I love the Celtic belief that only a thin veil separates this world from the next. They took seriously Hebrews 12:1 (“Seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses…”), so a Celtic Christian at prayer was consciously a member of the great company that stretched from the persons of the Trinity through the powerful angelic throngs to the risen saints. They were regarded very much as friends and companions in this world and addressed almost as one would neighbours or members of the family.
One of the most demanding and often costly tasks undertaken by the Celtic monasteries was hospitality. Celts believed hospitality was not only meant to be a custom in their homes, but also a key into the kingdom of God. The guest house, or hospitium, often occupied the best site within the monastic community, and though the monks might live on bread and water, visitors would often received the best of food and drink. The monastery at Derry is said to have fed a thousand hungry people each day. Brigit, who presided over the monastery at Kildare, often made butter for visitors. Tradition has it that when churning the butter, Brigit would make thirteen portions—twelve in honour of the apostles and an extra one in honour of Christ, which was reserved for guests and the poor.
One of my favourite Celtic prayers is this beautiful hospitality prayer attributed to Brigid, one of the best-known women leaders of the Celtic church.
Much of our knowledge of Celtic Christianity comes through their beautiful prayers, many of which were written over a thousand years ago, and then gathered in the Carmina Gadelica. The most famous Celtic prayer and another of my favourites, is Patrick’s breastplate, which I adapted a few years ago as a responsive litany. Patrick’s prayer is shot through with a deep sense of the presence of God and a confidence in God’s ability to protect from evil as we see here:
We bind unto ourselves today the strong name of the Trinity,
By invocation of the same, the Three in One, the One in Three.
Of whom all nature hath creation, Eternal God, Spirit, Word;
Praise to the God of our salvation, Salvation is of Christ the Lord.
As this prayer reveals, the presence of Christ was almost physically woven through the lives of the Celts. He encircled, upheld and encompassed them as a companion next to them, a guest in the house, a physical presence in their lives. I love the way that is expressed in yet another of my favourite Celtic prayers:
Christ as a light, illumine and guide us.
Christ as a shield, overshadow and cover us,
Christ be under us, Christ be over us,
Christ be before us, Christ be behind us,
Christ be within us, Christ be without us,
Christ as a light illumine and guide us.
Celtic Christianity opened my eyes to the belief that creation is translucent, allowing us glimpses of the glory of God. The earth and its wonders provide the key not just to establishing the existence of God but also to learning about him. This is no pantheistic worship of the elements but rather a dynamic picture of God’s active presence in creation. God animates and charges all things with divine energy, and they in turn reflect and respond to God’s creative presence and sustaining love. God’s hands don’t simply encircle and protect the earth and all it contains; God also quickens, enlivens and inspires it so God’s existence can be confirmed through contemplation of the beauty and order of the natural world.
Celtic cross decorating altar retreat 2011
In this tradition, nothing is too trivial to be sanctified by prayer and blessing, whether it be dressing for the day’s work, milking the cow or damping down the fire at night. This sense of the importance of the little things parallels the Celts’ identification with the little people, the marginalized and the oppressed. All persons represented God and might be heavenly visitors in disguise. Extending hospitality opened a door to the kingdom of God and welcomed Jesus into their midst. It was an important expression of love both toward God and neighbour.
My own interest in the sanctity of ordinary, everyday tasks and the importance of finding God within them, and my growing emphasis on the importance of hospitality as a doorway into God’s kingdom is one of the most important practical lessons I have learned from the Celts.
Celtic spirituality continues to enrich my faith, and I often write and use Celtic-style prayers, many of which can be found in the Celtic prayer cards I have created.
Celtic prayer cards available here
There is so much that we can learn from this ancient, future tradition whose followers saw themselves as guests of the world, living lightly on this earth and not becoming attached to possessions or place. They believed all of life was a pilgrimage, a journey towards God in which every experience and every encounter provided opportunity to both represent and learn about God.
Recognizing ourselves as guests and pilgrims affects how we view everything that happens to us. Pilgrims and those who travel frequently do not take anything for granted. They learn to be grateful for comforts that those who never leave home take for granted. For a guest, each meal, especially a home cooked meal, is a gift of love from the host. Each bed provided for us to sleep in is a generous act of sharing and caring. Everything is now a gift of God.
So as you go out into the world this week, think of what you could learn from this ancient tradition. Look for God in the translucence of creation and in the faces of strangers. Think of yourself as a guest of the world and prepare yourself for the amazing gifts God wants to lavish on you today – gifts of friendship, and food, gifts of fellowship and love and caring. And let me know what new things open up for you as a result.
Gift of Wonder, Breath, and Celtic prayer cards are all on sale as we look forward to St. Patrick’s Day!
Take advantage of this sale now through March 17th.
I am really enjoying these Lenten contemplative services from St Andrews Episcopal Church in Seattle. I hope that you are too. And with us celebrating St Patrick’s Day on March 17th, it is so appropriate to have “Christ Be With Me” (Prayer of St. Patrick) – text from the Lorica, or the Prayer of St. Patrick as one of the songs. So beautiful.
A contemplative service with music in the style-of-Taize for the Fourth Sunday in Lent. Carrie Grace Littauer, prayer leader, with music by Kester Limner and Andy Myers.
Permission to podcast/stream the music in this service obtained from One License with license #A-710-756 with additional notes below:
“Nothing But the Blood of Jesus” is a traditional American Spiritual. Solo vocal arrangement by Kester Limner, shared under the Creative Commons License, Attribution (CC-BY).
“Bless the Lord” is a song from the ecumenical Taize community in France. Copyright and all rights reserved by GIA/Les Presses de Taizé.
“Christ Be With Me” (Prayer of St. Patrick) – text from the Lorica, or the Prayer of St. Patrick.
Song by Ruth Cunningham, used with permission. All rights reserved.
www.ruthcunningham.com; www.youtube.com/ruthreid/; Instagram: @ruthreid11
“Lay Me Low” is a musical setting of a Shaker text by organist and composer Daniel Schwandt,
Music That Makes Community, 2013. © 2013, admin Augsburg Fortress.
Thank you for praying with us! www.saintandrewsseattle.org
by Carol Dixon
One of my favourite versions of the Prayer of St Ignatius Loyola is a musical version by my friend, Revd. Sheila Hamil, and includes some beautiful pictures of the Isle of Lindisfarne just off the Northumberland coast where saints of old learned to serve God in ways relevant to their time just as we need to discern what it means to serve God in ours.
[© Sheila Hamil. Used with permission]
Over the past year we have had plenty of opportunity to think about what a life of service means – from the overstretched National Health Service and the individual small acts of kindness in our neighbourhood to the big issues debated in the press regarding the nature of Public Service by our politicians or Service to the Crown as defined by the Royal Family.
A life of service isn’t always easy and motherhood is a good example of this. I was blest with a wonderful mother who always put the family’s demands before her own. Now I wasn’t a natural mother at all, yet through God’s grace I learned to serve the needs of my family without resentment and even with joy. On my own there is no way I could have done this but through God’s grace (and a lot of prayers) God turned me from a selfish person to a serving one as I tried to do what was best for my children. I didn’t always succeed but at least it worked some of the time and my children have turned out to be loving, caring adults who in turn care lovingly for their own kids. In the UK we celebrate Mother’s Day in March and use the opportunity to say thank you to our mothers by giving cards, flowers or small gifts as appreciation of their loving care for us over the years. Two years ago, I was invited to take a service on Mothering Sunday and I came across the following wonderful prayer (© URC Prayer Handbook altd.):
A Mother’s Day Prayer
Creator God, you are our Father and our mother.
We thank you for calling us to be in a relationship with you.
You care for us intimately throughout life.
On this Mothering Sunday
we give thanks for mothers and for your gift of life.
We thank you for the many moments which mothers
played a part in nurturing their children by their faith and service.
Creator God, thank you for the loving gift of mothers.
We thank you for our experience of mothering in our lives:
For women and men who have loved and cared for us,
who have nurtured us and provided for our needs,
who have been there whenever we called out,
and in whom we have placed our trust.
Today we pray for mothers
who are wearied through caring for others,
who are separated from their children,
who are struggling to juggle work and family life,
who are anxious about what the future holds.
L. Loving, mothering God, R. Hear our prayer.
We pray too for women who long to be mothers –
those unable to have children,
and for women for whom motherhood
is a burden rather than a joy.
L. Loving, mothering God, R. Hear our prayer.
We pray for the people who find today a sad or difficult time.
We pray for families who have lost a partner, a parent or a child;
we pray for single parents, for grandparents and extended families.
We pray for families where children or parents have special needs..
and for families where mental illness has led to a loss of memory and recognition.
L. Loving, mothering God, R. Hear our prayer.
We thank you God for families
where children are well happy and full of life.
On this Mothering Sunday, we give thanks for our Mother Church:
for our experience of being loved by a family
that is as wide and broad as the human race.
We give thanks that we can all practise your mothering gifts
as we live and grow in the family of the church.
Here we can learn to be welcoming and comforting,
to share our experiences, to listen to each other,
and to grow in grace and love.
Creator God, on this Mothering Sunday
we give you thanks for the gift of caring
which you have bestowed on us all
through the example of the love and sacrifice
of Jesus, our Servant king. Amen.
During lockdown while we have been permitted only to go out once a day in our local area for exercise, essential shopping or medical appointments, my escape in the dark evenings has been re-watching the BBC TV series Merlin which was first screened about 12 years ago. Like the Harry Potter stories it picks up on the great themes of life: good versus evil, and love & loyalty versus hatred & betrayal. The main character, the teenage Merlin has great powers of magic which happens to be banned in the kingdom on pain of death so he doesn’t know why he has been born with this gift or what he should do with it. By chance he becomes the servant of Prince Arthur who at the time is an arrogant prat – not the great and honourable king of legend that he is to become. These two young lads rub along together in a most amusing manner as they try to discover what they are truly meant to be, with Merlin secretly saving Arthur’s life on many occasions through the use of his hidden power, while all the time doing the most menial tasks and acting as the butt of Arthur & the knights’ jokes. It is only at the end, when Arthur becomes the great king he was intended to be and saves the kingdom with the help of Merlin’s abilities that he realises just how powerful Merlin is and how much he owes to him. ‘Why are you still acting like a servant?’ He asks Merlin as he lies dying ‘When you have all this power’. ‘It’s what I was born for’, Merlin replies. ‘ Your destiny was to be a great king and save the kingdom. My destiny is and always has been to serve you.’
As Christians we are called to serve our great king, Jesus, who knelt before his disciples and washed their feet as a symbol of true servanthood and gave his life for each of us so that we might fulfil our destiny to become the children of God. Through the Holy Spirit we are empowered to help bring about the kingdom of God on earth in the here and now by living lives of loving service, following the example of our Lord and Saviour who banished the darkness of sin and separation through the light of his sacrificial love.
Gift of Wonder, Breath, and Celtic prayer cards are all on sale as we look forward to St. Patrick’s Day next week!
Take advantage of this sale now through March 17th.
We are crossing the threshold into the second half of Lent and into the second year of the pandemic. Crossing into a new place we have never been before.
I am writing this post on March 11, 2021. It was a year ago today in America we realized that the pandemic was real. It was on March 11th, that actors Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson announced that they had Covid19. It was on this day last year that the National Basketball Association suspended all games until further notice. Those two things, even more than the World Health Organization’s announcement that we were officially in a global pandemic, got our attention. Everyone started hoarding toilet paper and clorox wipes/disinfectant. It’s been a very long year!
We are all crossing the threshold into year two and carrying with us the loss, fatigue, and traumas of the last year.
We all need to take time to process this past year, and all it’s ups and downs. One way to do that is to look back through your phone and your calendar. What do you notice? What does the Holy Spirit show you about your last year?
As we cross the threshold into this next season, some people have had the gift of the vaccination, and all the hope that it brings. Some of us are still waiting our turn. Some of us feel like the waiting is going to last forever! Most of us are just exhausted by everything! School and work online, battles over masks, political division, etc. Here in USA, especially in the South, things are opening faster than I wish they would because I really do not want to go backwards! I really want to protect people who are vulnerable, and selfishly, I really want use my passport again someday soon!
What does the Road ahead look like for you?
Here’s a quote from Bilbo Baggins in JRR Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings
The Road goes ever on and on,
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet,
Until it joins some larger way
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
What does it look like for you to cross into the second year of the pandemic?
Use the doorways to consider where you are on your journey today…. Look at each photograph and consider the invitation to leave and cross the threshold into this next season with Jesus.
Closed Door
Looking through the Door
Door way open to the Cross and Suffering
OPEN DOOR to New Life
Use the doorways to consider where you are on your journey today.
Where you are on your journey with Jesus as we head toward Easter? Are doors feeling closed? Or, do they feel open? Are you seeing life and light outside the doorstep? Are you feeling closer to Jesus? Or, has life and all its complexities slowed down your journey and your desire to draw closer to Jesus during this Lenten Season?
READ:
In Joshua 3 and 4, the children of Israel are finally making it into the Promised Land after wandering in the desert for forty years. They are crossing another threshold, the Jordan River and going into a land where everything is new once again! They are going to have to be different and follow God in a new place and in a different way. In this passage, they must follow the Ark and social distance and see the miracle of God of parting the Jordan.
Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before. Joshua 3:4
In Joshua 4, they are instructed to remove 12 large stones from the place where the Ark stood in the middle of the Jordan and then build a tower of stones where they camp in the new land. These stones/rocks are to be a reminder of all God has done for them! A way to remember that God has taken them across the threshold of the river on DRY GROUND.
Some of us cross rivers everyday to get to work or to the other side of town for errands. Some of us cross bodies of water by bridges and ferry boats to visit friends or get to work when we are able. Not everyone has to cross a river or journey over a body of water, but we all go out the door each day, even if it’s just to walk the dog or take out the rubbish/trash. What does the world look like outside your door these days? Is it feeling like a new land of promise, or a battle ground of uncertainty?
We are crossing the threshold into the second half of Lent. Are you ready to head towards Easter or are you still stuck on the far side of the Jordan? Maybe like me, you haven’t gotten very far in your Lenten practices. Or maybe you haven’t even started. Know you are not behind. While people today participate in a 40 day season of Lent, originally Lent was only the days of Holy Week right before Easter. You have lots of time. Talk to Jesus about where you are. Look back at the door photos above and really consider the invitation you have to cross the threshold and go out the door towards Easter and all the Hope it brings.
You still have time to follow Jesus to Jerusalem and you have time to fall more in love with Him along the way!
TAKE TIME FOR HOPE:
- Take a walk and look for signs of hope in your neighborhood or along the way you walk.
- Journal about where you are finding hope in these Lenten days and even in these days of Pandemic.
- Create a collage about what HOPE looks like to you.
- Pray the digital Stations of the Cross
©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com
Gift of Wonder, Breath, and Celtic prayer cards are all on sale as we look forward to St. Patrick’s Day next week!
Take advantage of this sale now through March 17th.
by guest writer Andii Bowsher,
When I was at school, we had an assistante come to help us to learn French. When it came time for her to leave, I recall having a brief conversation in a corridor in which she said, “Maybe I will come back to visit you.” Immediately, I said unreflectively, “Me?”. If my French at that time had been up to it, it would be less embarrassing to recall because I would have heard her say ‘vous’ rather ‘te’ and understood that she had the whole school in mind.
Many of us English-speakers tend to make a similar mistake in reading Scripture, reinforced by our culture which trains us in a relentless focus on the personal and individual; distracting us from the social and ecological dimensions of our existence.
This bias in our reception of scripture shows up reading the letters to the churches in Revelation 2-3. They each start with a singular you (‘thou/thee’, Greek su/soi) but end with the plural (Greek humeis/humas) and somewhere in the middle they transition from one to the other. The singular is the Angel addressed, the plural comes about because, for the Angel to respond and repent, the people who constitute that angel have to act in their own persons. This is one of the clearest places in scripture to illustrate the ancient way of thinking about social and political entities as having their own spiritual identity even while physically being constituted by people and artefacts. (Perhaps you’ll be familiar with this from Walter Wink’s Naming the Powers).
I keep coming back to a scene in Cronin’s The Citadel where two medics blow up a sewer to counteract typhus which the local authorities are reluctant to address adequately. I’m reminded also of the town of Flint, its water and its political entanglements. Sometimes to heal is to confront the Powers that be.
Now I find myself thinking about the pandemical situation we’re in. Amidst all the arguing about masks or social restrictions, we learn that dealing with a potentially dangerous virus cannot be just an individual thing. Here is a tiny entity that relies on our sociability, our un-aloneness, for its continuing existence. The words ‘public health’ really take on meaning: health or illness is not just ‘me and my physical condition’ but is also about how we organise things in society; how we support those who are vulnerable or who have to do things for the common good; how we each play -or refuse- our part.
So, in our culture, we Christ-followers must redouble our efforts to recall that we are dust (Gn.2:7), that we are “not alone” (Gn.2:18): we are dynamically interwoven materially, psychologically and indeed spiritually with matter, life, and other minds. Healing implicates all of these. Much of the corporate, psycho-social dimensionality concretises as “powers and principalities” -corporate beings made up of us (and other stuff) held in shape by the various forces of power running through emotions of love, fear, pleasure, pain, joy, despair, loyalty… Our healing as individuals is so often tied up with the health of environment, relationships and the bodies politic we belong to.
Responding to the issues rightly foregrounded after the murder of George Floyd, I convened a group for recovering from white privilege. We meet together to understand and unpick the ways that privilege and racist assumptions have become part of us. As we notice how our culture has formed our assumption and unconscious -unwanted- biases, as we re-learn the Christian virtues of humility, truthfulness, courage and neighbour-love, we disentangle ourselves from the baleful grip of the Powers.
To heal and be healed in a world of powers, we can start by asking ourselves questions. Perhaps these are for journalling?
What bodies am I part of? -That is, what bodies do I help to constitute through my presence (irl or virtual), my effort, my money?
How have I been influenced and formed by them and how have they co-opted me?
How far has my incorporation been willing and how far unconscious?
Where they bring ill, how does my involvement work and how can I best lean away and influence them for good? Do I need to ‘unincorporate’ myself?
Who are allies to change them or myself?
Bio for Andii Bowsher
I like to play: with my grandchildren, with language(s), with ideas, arts, liturgy and spirituality. Having bikes means that my spouse and I get to enjoy the great outdoors and exercise. When I’m not co-ordinating chaplaincy work at a university in the north-east of England, I help ministers-in-training to learn about mission and ministry. Involvement in spiritual accompaniment is increasingly turning towards questions of how to support people working through climate activism and environmental grief and spills over into liturgy and ritual. My own spirituality has the Lord’s prayer as its main touch-point and is suffused with greenery. Visit ourcommonprayer.org for examples of how some of these things come together.
Gift of Wonder, Breath, and Celtic prayer cards are all on sale as we look forward to St. Patrick’s Day next week!
Take advantage of this sale now through March 17th.
by guest writer Cathy Jarrell, photo also by Cathy Jarrell,
The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. ~~ Genesis 2:15 ESV
Today, during an unusually warm winter day, I glanced through the window and saw honey bees swarming the bird feeder. Curious about what I was seeing, I read that at the end of winter, before pollen is readily available, bees will use the dust from cracked corn as a protein source for the bee bread they produce to feed their larvae. How magnificent! I had just filled the feeder with a combination that includes cracked corn. I quickly filled a dish with more and left it on the ground near the feeder. Before I could even step away, the bees swarmed and filled the dish.
Was it my imagination, or did they expect and appreciate my help?
Okay, maybe that’s going too far. I do get carried away with nature sometimes. Still, my small involvement in the bees’ work of providing for their colony filled me with joy. More than that, I felt like I was acting in partnership with them. I began to imagine the consequences of helping them find food. What could happen? Possibly, the colony might raise more young honeybees, or healthier bees, which could mean more pollination, which would contribute to more plant diversity and abundant food sources essential for survival of many species on earth, including us.
During a time of pandemic, many of us have felt so helpless. Our problems seem so large, but our ability to act is so constrained. We seek healing for ourselves and for the troubles that loom over our daily reality. We look to God to help us heal our fractured existence. What would God’s help look like?
I keep thinking of how good it felt when the bees responded to my food contribution. Is that something like what God had in mind in choosing humans to tend and keep the earth’s first garden in the Genesis story? Our active participation in the mystical cycle of creation spirals out into all the world in ways that we cannot fully imagine. Of course, as we know too well, our actions can spiral out into the world for good or for evil done to God’s good creation. But there is more to it than that. Our actions also spiral inward, affecting the state of our own souls. My very small act of participation in helping the bees made me feel connected, whole, and joyful. It was a moment of healing that makes me crave more, and so I will do more. Each act of care for our world reaches far out into creation in ways I cannot imagine and, perhaps, helps heal in ways that only God can see.
This is certainly not a new idea, but I’ve begun to think of helping all of God’s creation as a kind of healing spiritual discipline. I already do many things to help the environment, but I’m changing my mindset to think of them as regular acts of devotion to God, just as I regularly pray, worship, and serve others. For that matter, perhaps my actions to help the environment really are acts of love and service to others. After all, when I pray, I trust that God will work some transformation. I don’t understand the transformation that occurs, I just know that it does occur and is multiplied. I also know that the act of praying itself is healing. It follows, then, that I can also trust that God will take my efforts to keep plastic out of the environment, to tend pollinator-friendly garden plants, and to use fewer resources and transform and multiply those efforts, all for the benefit of every living thing.
In a time of pandemic, when we must limit our exposure to one another, I have found that I can still do some good, and I can still be intimately involved in life around me. Even if my small actions do not seem evident right now, they will multiply, especially if everyone else does the same. The sum of many small things by many people, done in a disciplined manner over time, can heal the earth and heal us, too.
Did the bees really expect my help? Did they really appreciate my participation? The more I think about it, the more I think the answer is yes. After all, they, too, were in God’s garden and heard God’s instructions to us to tend and keep it.
Reference: Miller, J. (2021, February 27). Why are Honeybees at My Bird Feeder? Mother Earth News. Retrieved from https://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/why-are-honeybees-at-my-birdfeeder-zbcz2004
Bio for Cathy Jarrell
Cathy Jarrell is a retired medical writer, editor, and publisher. She enjoys nature walks with her husband, Sam, at their home in Saint Charles, Missouri, USA. Cathy enjoys many artistic pursuits, including painting and photography, mostly centering on the beauty of the natural world. Her primary writing interest concerns the intersection of human life and the natural world.
Gift of Wonder, Breath, and Celtic prayer cards are all on sale as we look forward to St. Patrick’s Day next week!
Take advantage of this sale now through March 17th.
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