by Christine Valters Paintner, PhD
Practicing Resurrection with All of Creation
Lent is a powerful season of transformation. Forty days in the desert, stripped of our comforts, and buoyed by our commitment to daily practice so that we might arrive at the celebration of Easter deepened and renewed. And yet this year, we were challenged to a much more severe Lenten experience, where many of our daily securities have been stripped away.
How do we then approach the glorious season of resurrection, and celebrate not just for that one day, but for the full span of 50 days. How do we savor joy in the midst of so much grief and heartbreak. Easter is a span of time when days grow longer in the northern hemisphere, blossoms burst forth, and we are called to consider how we might practice this resurrection in our daily lives.
My new book, Earth, Our Original Monastery, is rooted in my love of monastic tradition and practice: the gifts of silence and solitude, hospitality, daily rhythms, slowness, soulful companionship, and presence to the holiness of everything are gifts our world is hungry for. Over time, I began to discover the ways that Earth herself teaches us these practices. In the Celtic tradition it is said there are two books of revelation – the big book of Nature and the small book of the scriptures. Nature is experienced as the original scripture.
Thomas Merton, the 20th century Trappist monk who was such a genius at translating contemplative wisdom for a contemporary world often found his experiences in creation as some of the most profound spiritually. He writes, “How necessary it is for the monks to work in the fields, in the sun, in the mud, in the clay, in the wind: These are our spiritual directors and our novice masters.” For Merton, the elements of water, wind, earth, and fire are our original soul friends.
The monastic tradition is also filled with stories of the kinship between saints and animals as a sign of their holiness. The desert and Celtic traditions in particular have many of these stories, such as St. Cuthbert who would emerge from the sea each morning after prayer and otters would come to dry him off and warm his feet or St. Brigid who had a white cow as a companion who would give endless milk.
And of course, the great tradition of the creation psalms gives us a window into a worldview that sees all of nature singing praise together in the original liturgy.
How do we find resurrection in a season when many will die from this pandemic? How so we practice a deep sense of hope in the midst of economic uncertainty? What might happen if we let Earth teach us a new way of being?
Imagine if, during the Easter season, we each took on practices like these:
- Allow time and space each day to grieve fully, to release the river of tears we try to hold back so carefully. Listen to the elements and see what wisdom they offer to you for this sorrow and for how to endure.
- As our movements are limited, make a commitment to move slowly through the world, resisting the demand for speed and productivity that is tearing our bodies apart and wearing them down to exhaustion.
- Reject compulsive “busyness” as a badge of pride and see it for what it is—a way of staying asleep to your own deep longings and those of the world around you. Allow time to be present to birdsong and to notice the way creation is awakening through green leaf and pink bud.
- Pause regularly. Breathe deeply. Reject multitasking. Savor one thing in this moment right now. Discover a portal into joy and delight in your body through fragrance, texture, shimmering light, song, or sweetness.
- Roll around on the grass, the way dogs do with abandon. Release worries about getting muddy or cold or looking foolish. Or dance with a tree in the wind, letting its branches guide you. Don’t hold yourself back.
- Every day, at least once, say thank you for the gift of being alive. Every day, at least once, remember the One who crafted you and all of creation and exclaimed, “That is so very good.”
- Allow a day to follow the rhythms of your body. Notice when you are tired, and sleep. When you are hungry, eat. When your energy feels stagnant, go for a long walk. See what you discover when you try to attune to your natural rhythms.
Easter is a season of new life, which does not mean we deny the reality of death. Indeed nature requires the death of old matter to generate nourishment for growth. Make space for the sorrow and make space to listen for the rumblings of spring erupting around you.
Christine Valters Paintner, PhD is a Benedictine oblate and the online Abbess at Abbey of the Arts, a virtual monastery and global community integrating contemplative practice and creative expression. She is the author of 14 books on the gifts of monastic wisdom including her newest Earth, Our Original Monastery and her forthcoming second collection of poems The Wisdom of Wild Grace.
Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, REACE, OblSB
Author of 14 books including two new titles in 2020:
“Earth, Our Original Monastery is a love song–a sacred ecstatic chant in a language we somehow know.” –Janet Conner, author
“The Wisdom of Wild Grace: Poems is a GLORIOUS collection! An inspiring, luscious, deep delve into Earth Wisdom and lively tales of Christian saints; a spirited and intimate re-seeing of the desert mystics and beloved St Francis and Julian of Norwich, offering their transcendent wisdom through beautifully crafted poems.” — Judyth Hill, poet
AbbeyoftheArts.com: Transformative Living through Contemplative and Expressive Arts
by Lisa DeRosa
Celebrating Earth Week!
As you know, Wednesday is the 50th celebration of Earth Day and we had hoped to be able to get together and celebrate but COVID-19 changed all that. However, even though we are physically distant, we can still celebrate.
First, we can get out and walk in God’s good creation, enjoying the sights, here in the Northern Hemisphere of spring blossoming all around, in the Southern Hemisphere of autumn colours and the slow approach of winter. Even for those who live in densely urban areas, there are still opportunities to enjoy the beauty of what is around you – the freshness of a landscape with little pollution, the delight of weeds pushing up through concrete and creating gardens. So get outside, take some deep breaths and enjoy.
Second, we can join one of the virtual celebrations going on around the world. On Sunday, we entered into both the celebration and lament of Earth Day this year by watching this inspiring interfaith celebration at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC. You can check out some of the possibilities for Wednesday on Earth Day.
Here on Godspace, we want to help you enter into the celebrations too.
You can check out our growing array of Creation Care and Earth Day resources. And this week, we have several inspiring posts on Godspace for you to read so I hope that you will check back each day to enjoy those.
Earth Week Sales in the Godspace store!
The Gift of Wonder Retreat!
Don’t miss out on the webinars that connect paid enrolled retreaters! We will begin these sessions in two weeks time, so please sign up and pay for the retreat to receive the updates about the retreat webinars. Please note, if you are just previewing the course, you will not be enrolled in the webinars.
To sign up, please click on the page below:
A Prayer
Prayer is our armour,
peace a shield,
Your presence is a guard
against the night.
Great Mother,
we drink from your breast.
Great Father,
we fall into your deep well
of all sufficient love.
Like the woman who asked for the water
that would forever satisfy,
so she would not have to venture out,
we ask for water over our heads,
baptising,
pouring from our limbs,
our skin.
Silence is an eye in a storm.
Silence is the deep powerful centre,
the engine room of energy,
of quiet power.
In your silent presence is our peace
and grace,
our prayer forged shield.
And from your endless sustenance we drink
to the depth of our need,
and fill our water jars to overflowing.
Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
March 2020
I will wade out till my thighs are steeped
In burning flowers
I will take the sun into my mouth
and leap into the ripe air
alive
with closed eyes
~ ee cummings
‘Sir,” the woman replied, “You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where then will You get this living water? Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock?”
Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life.”
The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water so that I will not get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”’
John 4:11-15
by Christine Sine
Did you know that we are still in the Easter season – it extends all the way to Pentecost as we celebrate with joy and praise the wonder of the Risen Christ.
This weekend I realized something startling but profound – we don’t come to Jesus, Jesus comes to us.
So often we talk about “coming to Jesus” as though we are the ones in control of what happens. But we aren’t. Jesus comes to us. The work of resurrection, revelation and transformation lies squarely on his shoulders. And he knows what I need. Nothing is asked of us except a willingness to listen and be willing to walk with him on a new journey into a new way of life.
As I have read the accounts of Jesus post resurrection appearances this week I was stunned by the messages that I can so often and so easily gloss over. Messages that seem so appropriate for the COVID-19 world in which live.
I look at the disciples and Jesus followers and and I am reminded that Jesus comes to us, the presence of love comes to us, when we are in the place of grief and despair and draws us into the light of a bright and shining day. It doesn’t mean that life is the way it was before, but does mean that change and transformation are possible because Jesus is still with us.
Jesus comes in resurrection glory:
- When I grieve and am full of despair
- WhenI am full of fear
- When I am confused
- WhenI am filled with guilt
- When I doubt
- When I have lost my faith
- When my hopes have been shattered.
- When I feel lost and alone
- When I do not understand
Jesus comes in unexpected places and to unexpected people:
- he come to us when we weep in the garden
- he waits in the empty tomb when all our hopes and expectations have been turned upside down
- he comes to those whom no one will believe
- to those who walk on a journey of confusion and bewilderment
- he penetrates beyond the locked doors of our hearts
- he meets us on the beach when we are going about our ordinary everyday work and asks us to start a new journey
Where has Jesus come to you this week? What are you struggling with in this turbulent situation in which we all find ourselves that you need to feel the presence of Jesus in your life?
Close your eyes. Take some deep breaths in and out and Allow Jesus to enter into your soul.
Sit still,
Let the presence of Almighty God
Embrace you.
Breathe deeply
Allow the love of the Glorious One
To still the turmoil of your soul.
Listen carefully with an open heart.
Hear the words of eternal truth.
Let them bring you life
In the midst of chaos.
(Christine Sine April 2020)
by Christine Sine
Last week I was sent a copy of Abba:Meditations Based on the Lord’s Prayer by Evelyn Underhill, with the expectation that I would read it and discuss it with a few friends – Alan Hirsch, Mandy Smith, Tom Herrick, and Cheryl McCarthy. I had not read this document before and was profoundly impacted by its depth and insightfulness. Too much to assimilate in one session so we are planning another discuss to follow. However I thought that I would not just share this link to a document that I heartily recommend to everyone who has been reading the series on Unpacking the Lord’s Prayer with delight, but also share a couple of the quotes in the first part of the document that most impacted me and a prayer/ poem that bubbled up out of my reflections.
It is too often supposed that when our Lord said, “In this manner pray ye,” He meant not “these are the right dispositions and longings, the fundamental acts of every soul that prays,” but “this is the form of words which, above all others, Christians are required to repeat.” As a consequence this is the prayer in which, with an almost incredible stupidity, they have found the material of those vain repetitions which He has specially condemned. Again and again in public and private devotion the Lord’s Prayer is taken on hurried lips, and recited at a pace which makes impossible any realization of its tremendous claims and profound demands. Far better than this cheapening of the awful power of prayer was the practice of the old woman described by St. Teresa, who spent an hour over the first two words, absorbed in reverence and love.
It is true, of course, that this pattern in its verbal form, its obvious and surface meaning, is far too familiar to us. Rapid and frequent repetition has reduced it to a formula. We are no longer conscious of its mysterious beauty and easily assume that we have long ago exhausted its inexhaustible significance. The result of this persistent error has been to limit our understanding of the great linked truths which are here given to us; to harden their edges, and turn an instruction which sets up a standard for each of the seven elements of prayer, and was intended to govern our whole life towards God, into a set form of universal obligation.
It is so true – how many of us really read the Lord’s Prayer with the intent of entering into the truth of it, not as a formula but as a way of life.
In those rare glimpses of Christ’s own life of prayer which the Gospels vouchsafe to us, we always notice the perpetual reference to the unseen Father; so much more vividly present to Him than anything that is seen. Behind that daily life into which He entered so generously, filled as it was with constant appeals to His practical pity and help, there is ever the sense of that strong and tranquil Presence, ordering all things and bringing them to their appointed end; not with a rigid and mechanical precision, but with the freedom of a living, creative, cherishing thought and love. Throughout His life, the secret, utterly obedient conversation of Jesus with His Father goes on. He always snatches opportunities for it, and at every crisis He returns to it as the unique source of confidence and strength; the right and reasonable relation between the soul and its Source.
I spent a lot of time yesterday thinking about the unseen Father and realized how little attentionI give this God because I have learned to refer to God with gender neutral words. Yet we need to know the tender, all loving perfect Abba Father:
Our Father, which art in heaven, yet present here and now in and with our struggling lives; on whom we depend utterly, as children of the Eternal Perfect whose nature and whose name is Love.
God, who stands so decisively over against our life, the Source of all splendour and all joy, is yet in closest and most cherishing contact with us; and draws us, beyond all splendour and all joy, into Truth. He has created in us such a craving for Himself alone, that even the brief flashes of Eternity which sometimes visit us make all else seem dust and ashes, lifeless and unreal. Hence there should be no situation in our life, no attitude, no pre-occupation or relationship, from which we cannot look up to this God of absolute Truth and say, “Our Father” of ourselves and of all other souls involved. Our inheritance is God, our Father and Home. We recognize Him, says St. John of the Cross, because we already carry in our hearts a rough sketch of the beloved countenance. Looking into those deeps, as into a quiet pool in the dark forest, we there find looking back at us the Face we implicitly long for and already know. It is set in another world, another light: yet it is here. As we realize this, our prayer widens until it embraces the extremes of awestruck adoration and confident love and fuses them in one.
And the prayer that bubbled up within me:
by Lilly Lewin
This week, the lectionary reading keeps the Easter story going with a look at Thomas in John 20. I’ve always loved Thomas. He isn’t afraid to say what he thinks and he asks great questions…
“Master, we don’t know where you’re going, so how could we know the way there?” and Jesus answers him, with “I AM THE WAY, the truth, and the Life. ” (John 14:4-6) In the midst of social distancing and the strangeness of this pandemic you may be feeling a lot like Thomas. We all want to know what’s real and we all have lots of questions! And if you are like me, you really want to touch Jesus and know he’s here!
I’ve always loved this painting by Caravaggio called “The Incredulity of Saint Thomas” painted in 1602. It helps me visualize the scene.
CONSIDER THE PAINTING. Look at it closely. Spend some time.
Allow God to speak to you. Look, Consider and Listen…
NOW READ THE TEXT …put your imagination to work…picture the story in your mind.
Read the passage 2-3 times and soak it in. You can even check out different versions at Bible Gateway.
John 20: 19-29
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”
A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Some questions to consider, you might take time to journal from them.
What speaks to you today? What do you notice from the passage that you didn’t notice before?
How does the painting help you understand the passage?
Is there an aspect of the painting that stands out?
What emotions, feelings come up as you reflect on the painting and the passage?
Is there a word or phrase in the passage that leaps out at you?
Do you find yourself in the room the first time Jesus appears or the second?
Are you feeling the Peace of Christ with you today? Or are you in need of more peace?
Are you having an easy time of believing right now or do you need Jesus to prove himself…to prove he’s real?
TALK to God about this..
It’s totally OK with God if you have doubts…God’s not afraid of your doubts or your questions …
In the midst of social distancing and the strangeness of this pandemic you may be feeling a lot like Thomas. Talk to Jesus about where you are and what you are feeling.
What would it take for you to believe right now?
What things help you see, touch, feel and experience Jesus?
Allow God to show you…
Take time to TOUCH JESUS’ Wounds today. Jesus is here in our fear, in our anxiety and in our suffering.
How does that feel?
Jesus is willing to show you his hands, his feet and let you touch his side…
ARE YOU WILLING to let Him? ARE YOU WILLING to touch him and allow him to help you believe again?
ALLOW Jesus to hold your doubts and fears and your unbelief today.
GOING DEEPER:
My good friend artist Scott Erickson has a great image and meditation relating to Thomas that he posted on Instagram this week. Check it out and read his meditation/reflection How does his painting help you understand the passage in John?
Watch this video describing Caravaggio’s painting
Check out this link for more contemporary views of this painting, Which one speaks to you?
©lillylewin and freerangeworship.com
by Barbie Perks
As I write, the world is in a full-blown panic attack due to the coronavirus pandemic. There are times when I flick through different news channels and begin to feel the anxiety rise in me too. We flew out of Tanzania back to South Africa on a routine trip, and find ourselves locked down with friends for the duration. Family members came back to South Africa for the Chinese New Year holiday, and were locked out of returning, and now, just as they were preparing to return, are locked in!
I have been pondering a section of Scripture the last few days, one that is not often referenced these days. Genesis 6:5-6 says,
The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he has made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.” So God told Noah, “a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God…” (v9) to build an ark to prepare for the calamity that was coming upon the earth.
It’s not my place to comment on the state of the world or to pass judgment; what I am wanting to focus on is how Noah was obedient to the call of the Lord to build that ark, to provision it and receive the animals and to then go in to it with his family and be shut up in that ark for as long as it took. He had no idea really of what was going to happen, no idea of the destruction that was coming through the rain and the flooding. Genesis 7:16 “….then the Lord shut him in”. Noah was locked down – a position we find ourselves in, although we do so semi-voluntarily. Through technology we are able to communicate with others and receive information about what is going on in the rest of the world so we are not isolated in the sense that Noah and his family were.
What I find amazing is that it rained for 40 days and nights, and then the earth was flooded for 150 days. (Gen 7:12, 17 and 24) Then the water receded, and if you check the numbers, it’s just over a year that has passed by the time God says to Noah “come out of the ark…” (Gen 8:15) There are currently countries considering extending their lockdowns, border closures and travel restrictions. Life as we know it has already changed dramatically for many of us, and it will continue to change. There are many, many ways that this pandemic is affecting us globally, and we cannot begin to imagine how far-reaching its effects will be as time goes by.
What I do know is that God, our God, is sovereign over all situations, including this pandemic. While we are locked down, we have time to read, consider, pray, and wait on God. We have time to reflect, to repent, and to draw near to God. We have time to count our blessings, to connect with family and friends, to recover from the chronic exhaustion of just living in this hectic world. We have time to intercede for others, the only thing some of us can do to mitigate this disaster.
May the Lord be close to you during this time, whatever your situation, whatever your concern.
I have found this video very helpful:
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