tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9451341978075927242024-03-05T09:29:34.138-09:00Blessed, Broken & SharedKaty Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13728423830264254831noreply@blogger.comBlogger49125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-945134197807592724.post-39255763343333089442018-10-24T10:19:00.000-08:002018-10-24T10:30:38.813-08:00The Sheep Who Loves JesusAt the end of May I received a thank you card from one of the children in the Level 2 atrium (1st through 3rd graders) that I co-lead at St. Mark’s Catholic Community in Boise, Idaho. Inside Rosemary (age 7) had drawn me a picture of the sheepfold of the Good Shepherd with two lambs playing in green grass surrounded by a brown fence. Above the picture she’d written, with characteristic seven year-old effusiveness, “I love you Mrs. Katee [sic] you have been a good atrium teacher you are like the sheep that loves Jesus.”<br />
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I’ve been carrying her card around with me in the back pocket of my journal along with a few obituary prayer cards and a picture of a brass cross on a multi-colored rug of whose provenance I have no memory. I take it out sometimes and re-read it, and hope that I really am like the sheep that loves Jesus, each day, in each moment, no matter how exciting, mundane, hungry and tired, or full and ready for the next adventure I might be.<br />
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Within the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd (CGS) the image of the shepherd carrying a sheep across his shoulders is present everywhere. Each Roman Catholic, Episcopalian and Protestant atrium contains a plaster copy of the Good Shepherd statue from the Domitilla Catacombs, so famous in Rome where CGS began. Orthodox atria pray with icons to depict the shepherd holding the sheep. The themes of the Parable of the Good Shepherd from John’s gospel are explored with children younger than two in the growing toddler atria (for 1 ½ to 3 year olds) all the way to the children in level 3 (4th through 6th graders). Of course, the parable does not end its influence on our lives as Christians when we reach the age of twelve, but continues to grow with us.<br />
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In their early work with children, Sofia Cavalletti and Gianna Gobbi (the co-founders of CGS) believed that children were attracted to this parable because of the protection and safety the Good Shepherd offers to the sheep who (like children) are vulnerable and in need of care. Later they discovered, however, that the children in the level 1 atrium (for 3 to 6 year olds) did not focus primarily on the verses detailing the shepherd’s care for the sheep, but instead the relationship the sheep and the shepherd enjoyed illustrated by the verse, “He calls them by name.” This realization amazed the two women, because it demonstrates that the youngest child is capable of entering into relationship with God, into the Covenant relationship that is the foundation of our lives as Christians.<br />
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Within CGS the adults who serve in the atrium eschew the name of “teacher.” Instead, we strive to be “co-listeners” to the word of God with the children. While we offer some structure, boundaries, and help, for the most part CGS seeks to “follow the child” (as Maria Montessori, another Catholic, who provided the educational foundation for CGS would say). One of the ways we do this is by resisting the urge to “define” the parables for the children. We let the children discover on their own (sometimes over years of reading and interacting with the parable) who the Shepherd and the sheep are. Usually by the age of five a child will have proclaimed to us at some point within the atrium, usually with a measure of awe or a cry of complete joy, “I am a sheep!”<br />
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Maybe this is why Rosemary’s card has become so precious to me. Instead of telling me that I am like the Good Shepherd who cares for the sheep, Rosemary has placed me as one of the flock, just as I should be, a sheep along with her and all others, who seek to listen to the Good Shepherd’s voice and follow wherever he leads.<br />
<br />
Of the many gifts of being a catechist, the one I relish the most is how much the children continue to teach me about God. Jesus said with all seriousness, “Unless you become like little children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 18:3). In order to follow this commandment we must enter into the mystery of childhood—whether it’s through paying attention to the children within our own lives, volunteering as catechists (if this is God’s call for us) or meditating on the spiritual richness that children offer to us within our church. As adults, when we settle into our identity as beloved members of the Good Shepherd’s flock, all the superfluous anxieties and distractions of life fall away. Children invite us to listen with new ears to the voice of the one who calls us to fullness of life.Katy Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13728423830264254831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-945134197807592724.post-63581247221001000062018-03-30T16:21:00.000-08:002018-03-30T16:21:19.841-08:00Reverencing the Cross with Robert
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD3JkdgKCDhMcWhuFbqjPJN1OspKBffeQLfwRCIj7Zb6uHyg6Cx4jnxPioVDmSR7llkdTVk4V6GDizBE91Ug1I4T7TgcpNOV0TYMlDlSVVWltU3kU7K5xCEDbuVFBSyFyT5bKYsD3YYyed/s1600/IMG_0431.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="480" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD3JkdgKCDhMcWhuFbqjPJN1OspKBffeQLfwRCIj7Zb6uHyg6Cx4jnxPioVDmSR7llkdTVk4V6GDizBE91Ug1I4T7TgcpNOV0TYMlDlSVVWltU3kU7K5xCEDbuVFBSyFyT5bKYsD3YYyed/s320/IMG_0431.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Icon Crucifix based on the San Damiano Cross <br />by Deacon Charles Rohrbacher. <br />Currently on display at the Alaska State Museum. </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s Good Friday morning in Juneau, Alaska. The sky is a clear
baby blue with sun that glints off the piles of old snow heaped at the edges of
parking lots and clinging to the grasses of the wetlands in front of my
parents’ house. Today we’ll go to the Shrine of St. Therese for Stations of the
Cross, out where it’s not uncommon to see whales breaching or hear the bellows
of sea lions in the distance. It’s good to be home.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt;">If I was in Boise, and it wasn’t Spring Break, I would be
making my way down to the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist to meet with a
small group of 3, 4 and 5 year-olds in their atrium. This is the first year for
St. John’s to host an atrium, and it’s the first year since beginning Juneau’s
Cathedral atrium in 2010 that I’ve had the opportunity to be part of building an atrium and to see it grow from the smallest seed to a thriving community of work and prayer.</span></div>
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It hasn’t all been smooth, but the bumps have been
beautiful, too, in their own way. Most of the children entered into this new
space with quiet curiosity. When we first made our way around the room, hands
clasped behind our backs to make sure that we would “look only with our eyes,”
I asked the children, “Did anyone see something particularly beautiful in our
atrium?” One little girl silently walked over to the prayer table and pointed
to the small, ceramic San Damiano Crucifix lying there. Since this moment, the
cross has been the focal point of our atrium. At prayer time the children take
turns silently holding it before passing it on to the next child. Sometimes the
children will wander over and stroke it on their way from one work to another. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of the children within the Friday morning group, one was not
so certain about spending time in the atrium. For the first few weeks, Robert
would only remain within the room if one of his parents stayed by his side.
Gradually they moved farther and farther away, first sitting just outside the
door, and then slowly taking places farther down the hall. Robert would choose
a work rug and then one of the many practical life activities and position
himself in the doorway, sometimes halfway in and halfway out, to work on
sponging, cutting up small pieces of paper, or matching keys with locks where
he could see his parents out of the corner of his eye. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then one day in early February, Robert looked up from his
place in the doorway and told me, “I want to go to the prayer table.” Kneeling
together in front of the table, I lit the candle for him. “How would you like
to pray?” I asked. Robert began listing the things he was thankful for: people,
mom and dad, the church, the atrium . . . Then he paused and picked up the San
Damiano cross, closed his eyes and clutched it tightly to his chest. After
several seconds he passed it to me and gestured for me to do the same. Closing
my eyes I pressed the cross over my own heart, holding it for a few moments
before passing it back to Robert. We established a rhythm of prayer. Robert
would take the cross, hug it tightly to himself, scrunch his eyes and smile
and then pass it back to me. Each time his smile seemed to grow bigger. His
arms wrapped tighter as if he was embracing the cross with all his strength.
Finally, he let out a big sigh placed the cross back on the table and snuffed
the prayer candle. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Every Friday since, Robert will at some point stop his work
in the doorway and announce in a loud whisper, “I want to go to the prayer
table!” My co-catechist, Emily, or I will accompany him to light the candle and
pray with Robert. He leads the way, telling us what he is thankful for, letting
us know which songs he wants to sing, and then, when the moment is just right,
taking up the cross in his hands, embracing it and passing it to us. This last
Friday, Robert kept his eyes closed as we reverenced the cross. He held it out
to me and waited for my hands to take it from his, and then when I gently
touched it to his shoulder when I was done, he would take it carefully back.
His smile again growing wider and wider. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today, during the Good Friday service we are all invited to reverence the cross of
Christ. The gesture itself is left up to the believer, whether we touch the
wood with our fingers, kneel before it or even bend to kiss this symbol of love
conquering hate and life stronger than death. And I know that when it is my
turn I will think of Robert, and if I dared I would wrap up the cross in a bear
hug, eyes scrunched tight, smile growing wider and wider, amazed at the God of
transformation who can take a vehicle of torture, pain and hatred, and turn it
into pure love. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Yesterday, my teen daughters sat with a good friend and
talked about the problems of the world. They are manifold, it’s true, but I
wanted to show them what Robert’s shown me, love is greater, we just need to
hang on tightly. <o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment--><br />Katy Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13728423830264254831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-945134197807592724.post-36230580825640697632017-12-31T09:31:00.000-09:002017-12-31T09:31:20.900-09:00We are Holy Now <div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDIXOAdFsJXoqEpMRmiWugvk3JzmiGTKDi8_7wWFtvzYI6amyqlfIdl7vitFpZbW6n1eE4M51g1EUqYvvLjC_4DkfDrQUlp-hprX8TLAVsG1WRXzj0m6LjU7XcJ8Km05xVyexfINXTlLjE/s1600/Holy+Family+Statue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDIXOAdFsJXoqEpMRmiWugvk3JzmiGTKDi8_7wWFtvzYI6amyqlfIdl7vitFpZbW6n1eE4M51g1EUqYvvLjC_4DkfDrQUlp-hprX8TLAVsG1WRXzj0m6LjU7XcJ8Km05xVyexfINXTlLjE/s320/Holy+Family+Statue.jpg" width="240" /></a><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In today’s
Gospel for the feast of the Holy Family we hear of Mary and Joseph taking their child to the Temple in
Jerusalem to consecrate him to the Lord. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I remember, almost exactly 13 years ago, my
husband and I bringing our own newborn twin daughters to Mass for the first
time. They were a little over a week old, and though the preparation of making
sure all four of us were washed, dressed, and fed, took longer than expected, I
couldn’t stop smiling as we tiptoed into a back pew while the first reading was
being proclaimed with our tiny bundles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The pastor of our parish at the time, Fr. Tony, had a habit of asking
the community before Mass, “Who has some Good News to share?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Though we’d missed the time for
announcements, before he began his homily, Fr. Tony told the gathered community,
“You’ll have to excuse me, our Good News has just arrived,” and walked to the
back of the Church to bless our new little babies, before continuing on with
the Mass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Just like Mary and Joseph bringing
their son to the Temple, in current Catholic practice there are also moments of
intensity where we celebrate, consecrate, bless and give thanks for our
children. Through the sacraments of belonging and thanksgiving—Baptism, 1<sup>st</sup>
Communion, Confirmation and Reconciliation, parents and the entire believing
community, consecrate children to God.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
And in-between these moments of
feasting, these mountaintop experiences are the day-to-day makings of a home. I
find it interesting that in today’s Gospel reading, there is shortened form
that can be read which only includes the first verse:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“When the days were completed for their
purification according to the law of Moses, they took him up to Jerusalem to
present him to the Lord”, and the last two verses:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“When they had fulfilled all the
prescriptions of the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own
town of Nazareth. The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the
favor of God was upon him.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
While the presentation at the
temple and the proclamations of Anna and Simeon are beautiful, it seems that
these three verses, go straight to the heart of what this feast is about. The
feast of the Holy Family reminds us again of the great mystery of the
Incarnation—the ineffable God, Lord of Creation, became a human, became
vulnerable in the ultimate vulnerability of a baby, toddler, and a child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He became a little one who relied upon the
goodness, wisdom, faithfulness, and care of his mother and foster father to
provide everything he needed for life—nourishment, shelter, clothing, love. Hidden
away in Nazareth, Jesus grew the way all children do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He shared meals with his family and went to
worship in the synagogue with them. Though we have no record in the Bible of
these years in Nazareth before Jesus turned 12 and was lost in the very Temple
he was consecrated in—we can imagine the Holy Family was not always calm and
pristine. Mary’s days weren’t taken up with needlepoint, rosaries, and hours of
quiet contemplation. She worshipped the divine by washing his clothes, hand
kneading his daily bread, and reminding him to wash his hands before dinner. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The Holy Family was not holy because
they lived in peace and tranquility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>They are holy because they faced the adversity of everyday life and
cataclysmic events with faith, hope and love. They are holy like the Syrian
refugee mothers who seek to give their children a chance at life in a strange
land. Like the fathers who go out and look for work—anything to feed their
families in a place that looks on them with suspicion. They Holy Family is
holy, too, because all families are holy—created in the image of God. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And so
following the example of the Holy family, let’s not wait until everyone’s perfect
to claim our holiness. Not to put off recognizing our essential holiness until
the baby sleeps through the night and we’re all well rested, or until we can
afford the house of our dreams, or until everyone’s out of diapers, or out of
eye-rolling. Because that misses the point: we are holy now. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
When I was a teenager I took a hike
up to a mountaintop in Juneau, with my great-Aunt Mary Thibodeau a Sister of
the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary. An exuberant person her whole life long, when
we reached the summit, Aunt Mary spread out her arms to the blue sky and sang
Jean Val Jean’s line from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Les Miserables:
</i>“To love another person is to see the face of God.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Whether you are the parent of young
children or grown children, whether you are living alone or in community—the
feast of the holy family lifts up for each of us a message of comfort and of
challenge: there is holiness in the ordinary minutiae of everyday life. Each
encounter with another is a privileged meeting place with the divine, and a
reminder that we all belong to the Holy Family.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Katy Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13728423830264254831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-945134197807592724.post-51831939284137025082017-12-14T14:27:00.000-09:002017-12-14T14:27:32.895-09:00Words for (and from) my Grandmother <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-fKGgF0rmovWdrJby6osUQs9t9HPMPldM8r0bitgXQ1gh9PmW1fvRida7ct_89yi4lQ4Do9ZrKEQYxyJNOmlu04foUJh655vb25J2UCMpIFtRicGX8ggAOTi9Zy2aU-Tml3h8yB7KpUoq/s1600/Grandma+%2526+me.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="724" data-original-width="1086" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-fKGgF0rmovWdrJby6osUQs9t9HPMPldM8r0bitgXQ1gh9PmW1fvRida7ct_89yi4lQ4Do9ZrKEQYxyJNOmlu04foUJh655vb25J2UCMpIFtRicGX8ggAOTi9Zy2aU-Tml3h8yB7KpUoq/s320/Grandma+%2526+me.jpg" width="320" /></a><i>My grandmother, Elaine Viola Beedle, passed away peacefully on November 15, 2017, surrounded by family members. At her funeral, on December 5th, I was privileged to offer a part of the eulogy for this amazing woman. Here's what I said: </i></div>
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Grandma was a planner and it seemed
she wanted to make sure that everything was exactly so before she passed away. The
past several years Grandma gathered together different writings: poems, prayers and scriptures to be used for when she died. Sometimes I think of the things we do, preparing a prayer card or planning the rosary and funeral Mass, as a love letter we write for the person who has passed away. But, as she did in so many things, Grandma turned this tradition around, and wrote a love letter to <i style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">us, </i><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">in the songs, prayers, and readings she
so lovingly chose for last night and today</span><i style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">.
</i><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">She even left several examples of thank you cards for her family to send
out to all the people who have treated us with such care and kindness during
this time. Today we hear Grandma’s voice again, strong and clear lifted in song,
reading the words of the Bible, praying the prayers she loved and lived so
deeply.</span></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Last June I went to visit Grandma
at home. She kept asking me if I had read a recent article in the Southeast
Alaska Catholic, our diocesan newspaper, written by Fr. Ron Rolheiser. I told
her I hadn’t. She was insistent about how good it was but couldn’t find the
words to say more. Eventually Aunt Janet produced the paper and I read the
article aloud for all three of us to listen to. In it, Fr. Rolheiser talks
about the death of his sister many years earlier from cancer. She was leaving
behind a large family and shortly before her death she told Fr. Rolheiser what
he should say at her funeral. The gospel she had chosen was the one from John
where Jesus tells the disciples at the Last Supper “In my Father’s house there
are many dwelling places . . . I am going to prepare a place for you.” Fr. Rolheiser
wrote in the article, <o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">[My
sister] shared how before every one of her children was born, before she went
to the hospital to give birth, she had carefully prepared everything at home
for the new arrival, the crib, the diapers, the clothing, the room. She brought
each of her children home to a place she had carefully prepared. And now she
was going on ahead of them again, to prepare another place for them. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
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When I finished reading the
article, grandma sat back in her rocking chair, closed her eyes and said, “Yes!
That’s exactly right.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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Throughout her life Grandma
prepared so much for us: family dinners, Christmas fudge, Easter eggs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We remember all of these actions of love with
gratitude, but even more we remember how she herself was prepared to greet us,
whether we were dropping by unexpectedly or responding to an invitation, her
arms were open wide, her face lit up with joy. We all secretly thought we were
her favorite. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Grandma showed us how to live with
purpose, love and thanksgiving. And she wanted us to know her work is not done
yet. She’s still praying for us, loving us and preparing with Jesus, Mary and
all the saints and angels a special place for us when it is our turn to be
called home. She waits expectantly for the time we will be gathered around one
table again. When our joy will be complete and the feast will never end. <o:p></o:p></div>
Katy Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13728423830264254831noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-945134197807592724.post-3636612692660317152015-11-15T18:11:00.000-09:002015-11-15T18:22:18.459-09:00The Birth Pangs of the Kingdom of God <div>
<i>Thanks to Pastor Tari Stage-Harvey for inviting me to preach at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church today. And thank you to the wonderful people of Shepherd of the Valley for welcoming me to your worship and graciously laughing at my "pope joke." It was a blessing to be with you. </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b>Gospel: </b></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;"><b> </b>"As Jesus came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, 'Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!' Then Jesus asked him, 'Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.' When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately, 'Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?' Then Jesus said to them, 'Beware that no one leads you astray. Many will come in my name and say, "I am he!" and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs.'" </span></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<span style="font-family: "times" , "times new roman" , serif;">(<span style="text-align: center;">Mark 13:1-8 )</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This is a
hard gospel. It’s not comforting. At
least not at first glance. When Pastor
Tari first asked me to preach, I didn’t know this was the gospel. You see, on most Sundays the lectionary of
the Lutherans and the lectionary of the Catholics line, up . . . but not
today. Looking for inspiration on what
to preach on, I turned to the source every Catholic preacher looks to when
asked to preach to Lutherans . . . the Pope.
And I found a quote from Pope
Emeritus Benedict XVI saying this is one of the hardest gospels to preach on .
. . ever. Lucky me. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This moment
in the gospel takes place only a few days before Jesus will be arrested and
eventually crucified.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He’s arrived in
Jerusalem with his disciples for the feast of the Passover.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He spends the first three days of the week
visiting the Temple, cleansing it, and preaching in it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The nights he spends with his disciples on
the Mount of Olives.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so today, their
third day in Jerusalem, as Jesus and his the disciples are leaving the Temple,
one of them says to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large
buildings!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus responds with a
chilling prophecy, “Do you see these great buildings?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not one stone will be left here upon another;
all will be thrown down.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This
exchange frightens the disciples, and so later on, Peter, James, John and
Andrew come to Jesus privately to ask him “when will this be, and what will be
the sign that all these things are to be accomplished?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What follows is a long discourse, the very
beginning of which we hear in today’s gospel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In this discourse<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus speaks of
wars, earthquakes, and famines, he speaks of persecution for his followers, and
of a great tribulation to terrible to even imagine, and finally he ends with
the image of the coming of the Son of Man.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>It’s not
until 28 verses after the four disciples asked their initial question, “when
will this happen?” Jesus finally answers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Near the end of the 13<sup>th</sup> chapter of Mark, he says,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“But of that day or hour, no one knows,
neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It seems a little anti-climatic after
everything Jesus has revealed, to come to the end and have the answer be, “No
one knows.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But perhaps
this is because the disciples are asking the wrong question to begin with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They want to be prepared for the moment when
“not one stone will be left upon another and all will be thrown down.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They want practical answers: “Tell us, when
will this be and what will be the sign that these things are about to be
accomplished?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s almost like they
want Jesus to say—in ten years, on Friday, December 17<sup>th</sup> at 7am this
will occur--clear out of Jerusalem before then.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But the disciples [like us, when we strive for literal meanings and
definite answers—when we try to box in the Word of God to palatable bite size
portions] <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>we miss the point
entirely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The point is not when or
where, but how and who . . . <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And this is
the crux of the gospel—of the Good News:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>as Christians we hold on to the sure hope that history is going
somewhere.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are not going round and
round in a chaotic, meaningless cycle.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We are going towards the time when God will be all in all as St. Paul
says in his first letter to the Corinthians.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We are going towards the time of the fullness of the Kingdom of God.<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
No one image, no one word or
metaphor is enough to contain this Kingdom, which is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">for </i>us and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">among </i>us and
yet also ultimately <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">beyond </i>us. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Jesus tells
us the kingdom is like a mustard seed—the tiniest seed that grows to be a
magnificent shrub that can house all the birds of the air.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Kingdom of God is like a precious pearl
which a merchant—with joy and gladness—gives all he owns to possess.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Kingdom of God is like a wedding feast to
which all are invited. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When Jesus
walked in the Land of Israel he not only <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">spoke</i>
the Kingdom, he also <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">acted </i>the
kingdom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And wherever he was the Kingdom
broke out—the lame walked, the blind were given back their sight, the lepers
were healed, the hungry were fed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>We trust
and believe in this radical, beautiful, incomprehensible promise of God being
all in all; of the fullness of the Kingdom of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we don’t know exactly how and we don’t
know exactly when this will come about. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I find it
interesting and fitting that Jesus uses the imagery of “birth pangs” at the end
of this Gospel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I have gone through “birth pangs” personally two times and accompanied
women and their partners through birth as a doula several more. There is
nothing like laboring to bring a child into the world:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the expectancy, the hope, the excitement, the
joy, and also the pain, and the grit and determination required.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Birth is not easy, but bringing something to
birth is powerful, beautiful and hopeful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And this is the image Jesus gives us for the establishment of the
Kingdom of God—it is a birthing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The question the disciples, ask,
“When will this occur?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is the wrong
question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is no when, because the
time to birth the kingdom is now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
might ask, “What is it that God is bringing to birth in us, in our communities,
in our world?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where is the Kingdom
striving to be born and how may we help and encourage that birth?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In the birthing process there is a
moment called “transition.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s often
the most difficult time for a laboring mother—the time when you’re most likely
to grab your husband, the nurse, the doctor, or all three at once and say, “I’m
done!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Make this stop!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the moment of truth, when the powers
of birth are so strong that the woman must give into them, let go of control
and let whatever happens, happen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
moment of truth is one of trust and surrender at the same time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I think
Jesus, on the cross has his own moment of “transition.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When he cries out, “My God, my God, why have
you abandoned me?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the very
beginning of Psalm 22.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And in reading
through Psalm 22 we find the image of God the midwife.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The psalmist proclaims:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"it was you who took me from the womb;
you kept me safe on my mother's breast" (Psalm 22:9).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After reciting the beginning of this psalm,
Jesus breathes his last and surrenders to death—a death that will bring about
the ultimate new life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the
pattern of life we as Christians mold ourselves to—dying and rising; labor
pains and birth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not always
easy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is not always comforting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is good. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Around us and within us we can see
the birth pangs of the Kingdom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let us
pray to God with hope, trust and surrender, “Great Midwife, bring the Kingdom
to birth in me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let your Kingdom
come.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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Katy Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13728423830264254831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-945134197807592724.post-85916159881331882412015-11-12T18:48:00.001-09:002015-11-12T18:48:07.927-09:00The Practice of Parenting <i>I just found this piece I wrote two summers ago. It reminded me about what is most essential right now. Hint: It's not touching my toes, though I did do some stretching today and I'm getting closer. </i><br /><div class="MsoNormal">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_rih3SDOF-46JMHFq-J3ygTEJhO2_XvOUS8Ud3zU6Mgr_DqJ6nX92FANvfx7aiIh0zEg7W2e7cWNoAD4th_PjqQ-eTDcjvp_0TRv5rtAmlsd6qxgcyk9chmLMYn41mTVgwYoUUY87gmah/s1600/IMG_2146.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_rih3SDOF-46JMHFq-J3ygTEJhO2_XvOUS8Ud3zU6Mgr_DqJ6nX92FANvfx7aiIh0zEg7W2e7cWNoAD4th_PjqQ-eTDcjvp_0TRv5rtAmlsd6qxgcyk9chmLMYn41mTVgwYoUUY87gmah/s320/IMG_2146.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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This summer I’ve been reading a lot about practices—the
practice of writing, the practice of yoga, the practice of running. Because I want to someday write a book and be
able to touch my toes without bending my knees and to be able to run Leg #2 of
the Klondike Road Relay (5.6 miles almost completely uphill) this September
without dying. I like this concept of
practice. All of the books I’ve read—and
I’ve probably spent more time reading than actually practicing—say the same
thing: </div>
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<ul>
<li>“Don’t worry about perfection.”</li>
<li>“You can’t be perfect the first time.”</li>
<li>“Have fun with it.”</li>
<li>“Remember—all you need to do is show-up. Be present.
Try.” </li>
</ul>
<o:p></o:p><br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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This past week and a half I’ve been in a little resort town
outside of Austin, Texas called Canyon Lake—completing a journey I began three
years ago to become a fully formed catechist of the Catechesis of the Good
Shepherd.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And now, coming home on an
airplane, I do realize how silly that sentence sounds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Three hundred hours of training, over a
hundred album pages, and three years being with children in the Atrium does not
a fully formed catechist make.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because
in this life we are never complete.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
journey continues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This work of
living—running, writing, trying to touch my toes—is never over.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So we never have reason to be bored.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s the Good News, right? <o:p></o:p></div>
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On my trip I only ran twice (don’t tell my Klondike team) at
a slow crawl for 20 minutes each time before collapsing in a sweat puddle courtesy
of the 7am Texas heat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I practiced yoga
once on the laminate flooring of my cottage before I realized my hamstrings
might be stretching in the low-lunge position but my knee pressed into the
plastic wood wasn’t thanking me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
writing didn’t happen much either.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most
days I came home too exhausted from lectures and presentations and relentless
note-taking to even think about picking up a pen or opening my laptop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Coming home now I’m excited to implement the writing and
running and downward-facing dogging into an ideal routine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But mostly I’m looking forward to the long
days of summer I’ve been gifted to spend with the four smiling faces waiting
for me outside of security. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTHD1u9wMywzVpNv-z9SXXJfqjJ5xystL1og3uDEBxF1m1YMe_qDI-A3av9UJN27IrT7cgyXba8hi6zbqRpXQ1zpR_9NzwLu04fjM94174-z5pzxHO8llEchA3JGKAty81n5b8zobBB8hyphenhyphen/s1600/IMG_1923.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTHD1u9wMywzVpNv-z9SXXJfqjJ5xystL1og3uDEBxF1m1YMe_qDI-A3av9UJN27IrT7cgyXba8hi6zbqRpXQ1zpR_9NzwLu04fjM94174-z5pzxHO8llEchA3JGKAty81n5b8zobBB8hyphenhyphen/s320/IMG_1923.jpg" width="240" /></a>When I think of practice I also think of parenting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You don’t have to be perfect—you just have to
be present.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You don’t need to have all
the answers—but welcome the questions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Forget about how educational the activities you have in your mind are
and get caught up in the Superman book you’re reading to your five year-old for
the 50<sup>th</sup> time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Leave the
dishes in the sink to watch your kids bounce on a trampoline.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sit and listen to an impromptu piano concert
without worrying about the laundry or the bills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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I want to continue this practice of life with the freedom of
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joy?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sure, a “thank you,” is nice—but
shining eyes and a big grin are completely acceptable. <o:p></o:p></div>
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I want my eyes to shine as I embrace the practice of
parenting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
Katy Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13728423830264254831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-945134197807592724.post-80535479293423569862015-05-25T14:09:00.001-08:002015-05-27T09:28:40.007-08:00Courage, Dear Heart <style>
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<i>My baccalaureate speech for Juneau high schools 2015 </i></div>
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In preparation to speak with you
tonight, I decided I should read over the journal I kept my senior year of high
school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I thought maybe it would be
inspiring.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It wasn’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A few weeks before senior year began I broke
up with my first and only high school boyfriend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From August to February my journal is full of
angsty entries.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I dissected every single
time we met in the halls of JDHS.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I even
sketched a schematic to show how close we sat to each other in our French
class. And then from February to May I only wrote a handful of times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think I was so busy and overwhelmed with
college applications and Debate competitions, and actually trying to study that
I probably didn’t get around it<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>. . . but
I’m not sure.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There’s a possibility that
these months were filled with all kinds of deep thoughts that maybe I could
have shared with you tonight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’d like
to think so anyway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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One thing is for certain—just
reading through my senior year journal made me exhausted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so tonight, I’d like to tell
you—congratulations on a job well done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>All those science projects, and English essays, and math tests, were for
this moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Soak it in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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And I’d also like to tell you,
thank you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your education isn’t just for
you, or to make your mother happy or your grandma proud, or your dad relieved
[though those are all good reasons], your education is a gift that you give to
your community, your country, your world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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And so I want to tell you on behalf
of your family and your community how happy and proud we are of you and also how
much we need you. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
We need your gifts and your talents
and your energy. We need your truth as only you can speak it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We need your courage. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Back to my high school journal—the
second to last entry I made, almost exactly 17 years ago today, when many of
you were one year old, does contain one nugget that I want to share with
you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This entry reminded me of the
strength and perseverance needed to make it to this point and to look ahead to
what lies beyond. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
On May 16<sup>th</sup>, 1998,
finally emerging from the fog of finals, I wrote: “I’ve been in despair [I was
a little dramatic when I was a senior, I’m totally past that now], but in the
midst of it I heard a voice saying, ‘Courage, dear heart.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just as the voice of Aslan said to Lucy in
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Voyage of the Dawn Treader</i> when
the boat was lost in the dark island.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The bearer of the voice led them out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’ve been led too.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
The book I’m referring too, that I
must have been reading my senior year, is the third book of the Chronicles of
Narnia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe some of you have read
them?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were kind of like your
grandparents’ Harry Potter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
This image of Aslan’s voice
whispering “courage dear heart” in the midst of the darkness resonated with me
then, and still does now. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Courage is needed for so many
things:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>To
finish something you’ve begun. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>To
begin something new. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>To
be the truest version of yourself. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>To
be wrong. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>To
ask the questions you’re not sure you’ll ever be able to answer. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>To
leave home. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>To
come home again. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Philosopher and theologian Paul
Tillich said, “Courage is the affirmation of one’s essential nature.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And in the past 18 years as you’ve grown and
matured the most important work you’ve done has been the work of discovering
who you are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
In the 2<sup>nd</sup> century St.
Irenaeus said, “The glory of God is the human person fully alive.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For each of us this means something
different—to be fully alive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It means
what gives you the most energy and joy and freedom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What is the gift you were born to give the
world?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all have one. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
This gift might change over time
and it takes courage to wrestle and sit and trust that this gift will reveal
itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because part of being fully
alive, of being human, is wanting more than just to be entertained or
superficially happy—in the end it is the connections we have with each other,
that define us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But connection is risky,
because to connect is to be real. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
I learned this a few years after I
graduated from JDHS.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On a safari trip in
Kenya when I was twenty I injured my back, herniating 3 discs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My injuries left me in a lot of pain, but
their nature did not make me a good candidate for surgery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was told to be patient, to wait.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Eventually, hopefully, the pain might go
away. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
So I spent my senior year of
college hobbling back and forth to classes and lying on my bed in the attic
window of the house I shared with three other college students.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I watched as other people played Ultimate
Frisbee or jogged around campus or even just sat with their backs against a
tree to study.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I never felt more like I
had no gift to give. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
And that’s when I met Pat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pat was a gentleman who lived a few blocks
away from campus in one of the L’Arche houses for adults with developmental
disabilities. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
I’ve always been someone who’s
enjoyed volunteering.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I knew at this
point in my life I couldn’t rake leaves or paint or do any of the other
volunteer activities that high school and college students are so good at—but I
figured I could sit for a short period of time with someone else who was maybe
lonely too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
From the first time I picked Pat up
we developed a pattern.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We walked the
few blocks to Starbucks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We ordered our
drinks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We sat across from each other
and smiled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then we walked home. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Pat’s developmental disabilities
meant he couldn’t speak.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I learned from
the L’Arche community that since being abandoned as a baby Pat had lived in
over 50 institutions and group homes before moving to L’Arche a year before I
met him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of anyone I’ve ever met Pat had
the most reason not to be open and accepting of strangers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But Pat’s gift was presence and he gave that
gift to me every time we went out for hot chocolate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Pat didn’t care if I could cook or clean or
write a fabulous essay or if I passed my Physics class—he simply cared.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because I was there. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Pat remains for me a model of
courage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What it means to show up in
life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To give your own individual
irreplaceable gift to the world even if sometimes, it will be rejected. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
But where does this courage come
from?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of my favorite verses in the
Bible, comes from Paul’s letter to the community in Ephesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Paul prays for this fledgling community:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“For this reason I bow my knees before the
Father . . . I pray that, according to the riches of his glory he may grant you
to be strengthened in your inner being . . . as you are being rooted and
grounded in love.” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
To be rooted and grounded in
love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here is the source of
courage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
And so, my prayer for each of you,
as you branch out to new pursuits and possibly new places, and definitely new
adventures—is that you remain rooted and grounded in love—in the love of your
family and friends, in the beauty of Juneau, in the love of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is in the rootedness to the very center of
our being that we each find the courage to say “yes” to all that life has to
offer.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
And so I’d like to say—from my 18
year-old self to you—“courage, dear heart”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Courage for the beautiful, unpredictable, precious journey of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">your </i>life fully lived.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
Katy Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13728423830264254831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-945134197807592724.post-72423021224668019242015-03-10T15:29:00.000-08:002015-03-10T17:42:55.811-08:00Poetry Slam To the 4lb 15oz baby<br />
who fit between my wrist and my elbow<br />
who I had to wake every 2 and a half hours to feed:<br />
<br />
I know you were scared<br />
to stand in front of the room<br />
of 30 capricious 4th graders.<br />
<br />
<i>I </i>was petrified <br />
to see my beating heart<br />
in pink t-shirt, flower print corduroy skirt<br />
trembling hands clutching<br />
a magic marker scrawled sheet.<br />
<br />
But then you smiled<br />
head to one side<br />
hand on your hip<br />
like me stirring instant pudding<br />
at the stove when I was 3.<br />
<br />
Your voice might have shook<br />
on the first line<br />
but everything else said,<br />
"Don't worry, Mom, I got this." Katy Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13728423830264254831noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-945134197807592724.post-60582073973195016092015-02-19T21:14:00.000-09:002015-02-19T21:14:05.508-09:00Be still <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTSA68R7oTsvS-mK4H9f0efQUPV6S3iA6JrzzEnu-V-cujYGiSiojrb4VMCop0pMJwssmPhfYF_Jl9ov3cBxWf4jssogwb0Zjw1UvzglCw4Md7D1JpuZFGkd39rHk6MUdok2H99PDIFI2m/s1600/photo-3.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTSA68R7oTsvS-mK4H9f0efQUPV6S3iA6JrzzEnu-V-cujYGiSiojrb4VMCop0pMJwssmPhfYF_Jl9ov3cBxWf4jssogwb0Zjw1UvzglCw4Md7D1JpuZFGkd39rHk6MUdok2H99PDIFI2m/s1600/photo-3.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A view from the walk home from school when it was still winter (a week ago). </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The psalm for morning prayer today begins, “Be still . . .
“<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It goes on, but I stopped reading because that was all I needed to hear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Be still.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Be still.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Be still.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But I wasn’t still today, in most ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I didn’t do Centering Prayer, though I had it on my list of to-dos above
the desk.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t journal very much
this morning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I read some of Romano Guardini
though, our spiritual companion for this semester of MAPS-CGS.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And there was so much about stillness in the
article I was reading, that I only read 5 pages and then decided I needed to
stop because they were so rich.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I
needed to be still with them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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In the article, “Romano Guardini’s
View of Liturgy, A Lens for Our Time,” theologian Kathleen Hughes, RSCJ says, <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Guardini suggests, despite all the
distractions around us and within us, we must learn the art of stillness, which
is absolutely indispensable for the liturgical act.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Stillness is the tranquility of the inner
life; the quiet depths of its hidden stream.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is a collected, total presence, a being ‘all there,’ receptive,
alert, ready.” <o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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And though this sounds so
comforting and reassuring I want to curl up and watch the fire burn, there is
an urgency to Guardini’s message too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Hughes sees it mirrored in the book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The
Good Society</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The writers (Robert
Bellah and “his colleagues”) proclaim, <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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Few things in life are more
important.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For paying attention is how
we use our psychic energy, and how we use our psychic energy determines the
kind of self we are cultivating, the kind of person we are learning to be . . .
If we are going to be the kind of persons we want to be, and live the kind of
lives we want to live, then attention and not distraction is essential.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Walking to school in December, just as the sun was coming up.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And so
heeding the call of stillness, (or maybe just overcome with fatigue from two
nights of inadequate sleep and the worry of not being prepared for a doula
meeting tomorrow) I stayed home today instead of venturing out into the rain to
do errands.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I did homework.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I ate lunch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I organized all of my doula files and handouts and paperwork into a bin and
I wrapped it all up just in time to walk to the school and get Jessica for our
walk home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There are
many good things in the world to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
today the best was to walk my children to and from school (Jackson one way,
Jessica the other), to listen to their chatter about all things essential and
peripheral, to breathe in the fresh Spring air (I’ve decided it’s Spring), to
remember the experience and excitement and joyful privilege of being a doula
and to get the kitchen incredibly, disastrously messy making Thanksgiving meat
balls, blueberry sauce, steamed vegetables and garlic mayo.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And looking
back just before bed I realize, almost like a hidden gift, that in all the
activity today, I somehow found stillness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It wasn’t the stillness I thought I needed to find.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was the quiet calm and energy of doing
work that is totally engrossing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was
the stillness of a 3 year-old pouring beans in the Atrium, of a 4 year-old
sitting with me before the lit candles of the model altar and saying “let’s say
all the prayers, I want to watch this candle melt”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was “all there” and it was enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Katy Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13728423830264254831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-945134197807592724.post-91026973637246062252014-12-21T16:06:00.000-09:002014-12-21T16:06:36.165-09:00Reflections on a Semester of Hebrew Scriptures or How my Rabbi helped me become a better Christian<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix4oVbCr5x83AQ_jP-VbjBphIDqly7NtMapz3LcMHO88ZCW7W2JW1NTflYB2F-pkC65RxYdrdpAv1OXmwi9211N8wpicF_ZGcodHQLX24pbg3u6X5CAcMGcc9zTRiG0MMmNJOBUOPJ3Jyq/s640/blogger-image-893221997.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix4oVbCr5x83AQ_jP-VbjBphIDqly7NtMapz3LcMHO88ZCW7W2JW1NTflYB2F-pkC65RxYdrdpAv1OXmwi9211N8wpicF_ZGcodHQLX24pbg3u6X5CAcMGcc9zTRiG0MMmNJOBUOPJ3Jyq/s320/blogger-image-893221997.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Research at the Saul Brodsky Library in St. Louis</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">When Rabbi Barry
Friedman told my cohort at Aquinas Institute of Theology that he wanted us to
take our “Christian lenses” off for our upcoming Hebrew Scriptures class and
put “Jewish lenses” on instead, I was quietly cavalier.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Not a problem,” I thought:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I’m a child of Vatican II, I was born 20
years after the Catholic Church stopped calling for the eventual conversion of
the Jewish people, and I grew up watching <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fiddler on the Roof</i>, so Jewish lenses were probably much like the
ones I already had—piece of cake.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>However, as you’ve probably heard, “Pride goes before ruin, arrogance,
before failure.”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=945134197807592724#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Life, fate, Karma, the Divine, or whatever it
might be called (depending on your lenses) probably had a good chuckle, when, a
few weeks later, I saw our local rabbi in a coffee shop and told him excitedly
that I was taking <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Old Testament </i>this
semester for my masters program.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
faced flushed three shades of red, as I mentally kicked myself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How could I have possibly made such a gaffe
the same day I’d read in our text book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How
to Read the Jewish Bible</i>, “Jews . . . view the original covenant as still
operative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For this reason, Jews have
tended to reject the term ‘Old Testament’”?<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=945134197807592724#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Perhaps my
Christian lenses were glued on a little tighter than I was willing to
admit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And this makes sense.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Brains are funny and stubborn organs, whose
pathways are littered with deeply entrenched imagery.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so as soon as my cradle-Catholic imagination
hears, “The Lord provided a huge fish to swallow Jonah and Jonah remained in
the fish’s belly for three days and three nights,”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=945134197807592724#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
I’m not immediately taken by the fact that the text never mentions “a whale,”
instead I’m reeling with the foreshadowing of Jesus’ time in the tomb (three
days and three nights) with Jonah’s sojourn in the fish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is one of the first courses I’ve ever
taken where I grew used to immediately distrusting my first impression, because
it was undoubtedly coming from the Christian lenses I wear everyday and not the
Jewish lenses I had agreed to wear for the duration of our course.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">When Rabbi Friedman
first spoke of taking off our Christian lenses a few months before our course
with him commenced, he was careful to point out that he wasn’t asking for us to
remove them because they were bad or faulty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>No, we were being asked to put them aside so as to fully enter into the
Bible, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Tanakh,</i> in a new way, one
that didn’t read back into the sacred scriptures what our Christian reading of
the Gospels and Epistles had told us about these texts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And this question became a challenge and a
puzzle for me and my cohort-mates:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Could
we really read the second and third chapters of Genesis and not let centuries
and centuries of Christian connections in liturgy, Tradition and scripture
between Adam and Jesus, Eve and the Church, the Tree of the knowledge of Good
and Evil and the wood of the cross, not affect our interpretation of it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Could we delve into the Passover without
thinking of the Last Supper? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Rabbi Friedman’s
invitation to don Jewish lenses did not erase our (Christian) knowledge or
understanding of the world, but it did allow us a way to challenge our own
preconceived ideas in a safe and constructive way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think some religious leaders and lay people
of all religions, would question this approach.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Is it really wise and worthwhile to ask a group of devout believers of
any religious denomination to set aside their most precious religious belief
(in our case, Jesus as the climax of God’s self-revelation to humanity), in
order to look at the world from the viewpoint of a religion that does not
subscribe to it? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Yes, I think it
is wise.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>More than that though, I think
it is necessary.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Rabbi Abraham Joshua
Heschel, an advisor to the Second Vatican Council, told the assembled cardinals
when he heard that the first draft of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nostra
Aetate </i>(Declaration on the Relation of the Church to Non-Christian
Religions) still called for the eventual conversion of the Jews:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I would rather go to Auschwitz than give up
my faith.”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=945134197807592724#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The call for conversion was removed and the
final document encouraged Jews and Christians to engage in “biblical and
theological enquiry” in a spirit of “mutual understanding and appreciation.”<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=945134197807592724#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And this call for collegiality in theological
and biblical inquiry is what I experienced firsthand this past semester.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is an experience that I want to take
forward in my vocation as a catechist in the Catholic Church. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Every week,
throughout the school year, I have the privilege of reading the sacred
scriptures in the Atrium with 9 to 12 year-old children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their brains are expanding at an astounding
rate, and often I think I can’t keep up with the connections and revelations
that come out of our shared Bible study.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In my work with the children, I hope to model what I’ve learned from
Rabbi Friedman this semester—to trust the questions that are asked, to know
that it is “possible to disagree without being disagreeable,” and to promote
the awareness of the lenses we wear, and the wisdom to be gained from taking
them off from time-to-time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Michael S.
Kogan, a Jewish scholar of Christianity, proclaims in his book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Opening the Covenant:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">We
[Jews and Christians] cannot assume that we posses all truth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where our understanding is weak, the other’s
may be strong, and vice versa.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We really
do have much to teach each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Such
mutual learning is one of the blessings of the Jewish-Christian dialogue.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It forces us to delve into our own tradition
while simultaneously investigating the other’s wisdom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ultimate purpose is for Jews to be become
better Jews and for Christians to become better Christians and for both to
become better and wiser human beings.<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=945134197807592724#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg__zpieIZnjlyG9xgCcF2MiOS71y986R-9gs9SMN4Aq_OlMYc8dmVoKJXAnuJU7JDgd72GePEzxi48_Ycvx_rFYCv6rEBP5mfxHV0SFaGfiQof-kxNQi4gD7KtSY8yt8mpADCmCeZf_TrI/s640/blogger-image--358805891.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg__zpieIZnjlyG9xgCcF2MiOS71y986R-9gs9SMN4Aq_OlMYc8dmVoKJXAnuJU7JDgd72GePEzxi48_Ycvx_rFYCv6rEBP5mfxHV0SFaGfiQof-kxNQi4gD7KtSY8yt8mpADCmCeZf_TrI/s320/blogger-image--358805891.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our CGS Cohort this Fall in St. Louis with Rabbi Friedman</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: left;">
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">Thank you, Rabbi
Friedman, for the opportunity to look at the scriptures through Jewish lenses,
and in so doing become a better Christian. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
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<hr size="1" style="text-align: left;" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<div style="text-align: left;">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=945134197807592724#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"> Proverbs 16:18</span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=945134197807592724#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"> Marc Zvi Brettler, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How to Read the Jewish Bible </i>(Oxford: University Press, 2005),
8.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=945134197807592724#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"> Jonah 2:1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=945134197807592724#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"> Abraham Joshua Heschel, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Essential Writings </i>(Maryknoll:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Orbis Books, 2012), 33. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=945134197807592724#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nostra Aetate, </i>#4.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=945134197807592724#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"> Michael S. Kogan, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Opening
the Covenant: A Jewish Theology of Christianity</i> (Oxford:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>University Press, 2008), 32. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
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<br />Katy Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13728423830264254831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-945134197807592724.post-54884068653372044192014-11-27T12:15:00.001-09:002014-11-27T12:15:38.487-09:00My Duck
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<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A few weeks
ago I decided to take a leave-of-absence from my position as Director of
Religious Education at the parish I’ve belonged to my entire life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I was baptized, received first Communion,
first Reconciliation, Confirmation, and was married all within the same four
walls over a period of 23 years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
then two years later I became the DRE.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The past 9 years of parish ministry have been ones of growth and
learning on a journey that brought me to the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd
and a vocation to be with children in the Atrium—to take my place as a
co-listener to the Word of God and to hear the scripture and Liturgy anew by
pondering them with 3 to 12 year-olds. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Last year I
began a graduate program at the Aquinas Institute for a Master’s in Pastoral
Studies with a concentration in Catechesis of the Good Shepherd.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every semester I go with my other 12 cohort-mates
to attend a 4-day intensive in St. Louis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A month ago, when we were
together, I shared my recent struggles to make it all “fit”—my main vocations
of wife, mother and catechist, along with my studies and the administrative
duties of being DRE.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of the women,
Micki, told me a parable she’d heard about discernment:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A person approaches a wood carver who has
spent years and years carving intricate wooden ducks, and asks in awe, “How do
you do that?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To which the wood carver
replies, “I take away everything which is not a duck.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And so
today, as I sit at home on Thanksgiving morning, still in my pajamas at 11am
with my family busy around me, I am grateful for the painful and joyous
winnowing of trying to discern everything that is not a duck in my own life. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A day after
resigning I went in to be with a group of homeschool level two children who meet
every two weeks at our Atrium.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Three of
the girls had welcomed a new sister since the last time we met, and as we read together
the first reading for Thanksgiving day from Sirach, their reflections were full
of the joy, wonder, and awe that new life brings: <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">And now, bless the God
of all<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">who has done wondrous
things on earth; <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXiwitOdU3vlJeq9XQipWW983xxkcWR5ID8vs_paLNvPhGS7cpbt6X7Ma8YLO9C1TvliKiVBjBZCl5DUdeHr_3bcPO6aCxGAcz3mr_B6IMIYDrLh3XjCIxhjOV0PnY9dW0_c4DkGZ_o9EH/s1600/DSCF2726.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXiwitOdU3vlJeq9XQipWW983xxkcWR5ID8vs_paLNvPhGS7cpbt6X7Ma8YLO9C1TvliKiVBjBZCl5DUdeHr_3bcPO6aCxGAcz3mr_B6IMIYDrLh3XjCIxhjOV0PnY9dW0_c4DkGZ_o9EH/s1600/DSCF2726.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Centerpieces for last years' Thanksgiving Prayer Service.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">who fosters peoples’
growth from their mothers’ womb, <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and fashions them
according to his will! <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">May he grant you joy
of heart <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and may peace abide
among you; <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">may his goodness
toward us endure in Israel<o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">to deliver us in our
days. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
To ponder God, who had fostered the
growth of their new baby sister and their growth, and all of us as we’re slowly
being drawn toward the light of God like the flowers that follow the sun as it
traverses the sky.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And to ruminate on the
hallmarks of resting in God—joy and peace. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Each semester in my master's program we read and study a
spiritual leader who influenced the theological thought of Sofia Cavalletti,
one of the founders of CGS.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This last
semester of studies, our spiritual companion has been Abraham Joshua Heschel—a Jewish Rabbi who barely escaped Nazi Germany in the 1930s to begin
teaching at Hebrew Union College in America.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Though most of his family perished in the Holocaust, Heschel continued
to be a voice of hope and faith in both God and humanity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He spoke out againt the war in Vietnam and
joined the Civil Rights movement to march beside Martin Luther King Jr.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He traveled to Rome to advise the bishops at
the Second Vatican Council on interreligious relations. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Just like
the youngest child who enters so easily into the essentiality of thankfulness,
Heschel called everyone to recognize this defining practice, “the truth of
being human is gratitude; its secret is appreciation.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This past
June my CGS journey took me to Atlanta, Georgia to a training for Level One
Formation Leaders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At the closing
gathering we were given time to write about our experiences and insights.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Looking back, I think I wrote about “my duck”:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Good Shepherd, I come before you
with open hands and a full heart and I ask you humbly to give me the courage to
be who I am most essentially.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No more,
and no less.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Didn’t St. Theresa say, “To
be truly who you are would be to set the world on fire”?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But for me it is enough to hold a candle and
to enjoy the flame and to share it with a child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your light—always your light—to see your
little ones already on fire—set ablaze with the holy joy of their belonging to
you—their yearning and sure hope of the Parousia. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In 5
year-old Noah you spoke your words to my grieving heart when looking at the
city of Jerusalem and pointing to Caiaphas’ house I said, “it was decided Jesus
must die.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Noah leaned in close to
me, put his hand on my shoulder and whispered, “Don’t worry Katy, he rose
again.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In 8
year-old Ani you proclaimed yourself as the author of us all when I asked after
reading the words of the Annunciation “I wonder what this could mean when Mary
says, ‘I am the handmaid of the Lord’” and she looked up from her artwork
halfway across the room and mused, “she knew she was made by God—handmade.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And in 12
year-old Nicholas you taught me of vocation when after a presentation on the
Plan of God he asked to go to the Church, “Of course,” I said, “What would you
like to do at the church?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Carry the
cross,” he responded, “because whenever I carry the cross, something inside of
me wants to carry it more.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>My
grandfather died 18 years ago this month and his favorite hymn was, “Only this
I ask, but to know the Lord and to bear his cross, so to wear the crown he
wore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For one day within your temple
heals everyday alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>O Lord, lead me to
your dwelling. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Good Shepherd,
thank you for this foretaste of Parousia.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>To come to know you in your little ones.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>To dwell with you as your child among children in the Atrium.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Katy Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13728423830264254831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-945134197807592724.post-23006395484671984272014-07-12T07:35:00.000-08:002014-07-12T07:35:07.958-08:00An Ode to Grace <br />
<div style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Jeff and I are in Golden, Colorado to celebrate the wedding of our friend Grace to her fiancé, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Joel. On Thursday night I was invited to go to a "Favorite Things" party for Grace. We were asked to bring something simple--maybe a poem or a quote to share with Grace--as well as a favorite memory we have of her. The night before we left Juneau, lying in bed, trying to think of what my favorite thing could be (Grace is a poet, the stakes are high) I remembered something in the bowels of our basement--a "Friendship Journal" that Grace and I had started over 10 years ago when Jeff and I were newly married, expecting twins, and living in Anchorage and Grace was living in Bethel, Alaska, working at the Women's Shelter there. The journal only contains two entries--one from me on March 17th, 2004, and one from Grace the following month. </span></div>
<div style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Reading through the journal I loved hearing our 24 year-old voices talking about life. How young we were! But also how wise. And there in Grace's entry, from her own hand, I found two favorite quotes to share with her about marriage. The first is this: </span></div>
<div style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<h4 style="text-align: center;">
<i style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">"How beautifully we grow when we let ourselves be loved." </span></i></h4>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The second quote from her entry, comes from her reflection on a book Jeff and I had lent her called <i>The Children of God</i>. She said reading the book re-affirmed for her the following about life: </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"></span><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlG6e51JmAr4Lk1lLsWkUoqTC_FxJsCfK-PYhhKhJ7ZQ99fc8B7itiHPhYEIWyd6eewNo9E1FRaKzEbKJZdOWE_mx8mgGMVyc8Vh9MnjI1rvwm1GrqyOAmvQVwY9pWEA0JOaQ7cA1rSW7S/s1600/grace+&+joel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlG6e51JmAr4Lk1lLsWkUoqTC_FxJsCfK-PYhhKhJ7ZQ99fc8B7itiHPhYEIWyd6eewNo9E1FRaKzEbKJZdOWE_mx8mgGMVyc8Vh9MnjI1rvwm1GrqyOAmvQVwY9pWEA0JOaQ7cA1rSW7S/s1600/grace+&+joel.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: small;">Grace's engagement photo with Joel </span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"></span></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">"We know so little. </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">We must trust in so much beyond ourselves to make it through this difficult world. </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">We make mistakes despite our best intentions. </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">We hurt one another. </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">And time helps mollify all this; </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">faith sees what we cannot."</span> </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And so, my Grace, on your and Joel's wedding day, know your own wisdom and beauty as you begin this chapter of your life together. </span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Here's the favorite memory I shared at the "Favorite Things" party: </span></div>
<div style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span></div>
<div style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">My favorite memory of Grace takes place on a blustery, sunny Juneau day in late May. It involves James Herriot and a hot tub. Actually the tub was barely lukewarm, and no one else was allowed to be in it except for me. While my husband frantically cooked lentils in our kitchen, Grace sat cross-legged on our queen-sized bed while my bouyant belly bobbed in the inflatable blue tub and read to me from <i>All Creatures Great and Small</i>. It's the tale of poor, newly-minted English countryside vet, James Herriot, who's out on one of his first jobs alone, desperately trying to help a cow to calve (or maybe it's a horse, I can't remember). The important thing is that the poor animal was in arrested labor, while poor James Herriot had his arm elbow-deep in the womb attempting to unarrest it. According to Mr. Herriot there is no greater agony known to man than to be thus situated betwixt the contracting pelvis of a birthing beast. </span></div>
<div style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A few hours later my own baby was birthed and Grace and I both sat cross-legged on the living room couch, looking at him. Watching her, holding my son, I knew why I had instinctively wanted Grace to be there, with me while I navigated the narrow way of birth--her friendship, her strength has always made me stronger. From forcing me to read my first map in Athens when I was twenty to rejoicing with me when I finally found the voice to say "f**k" when a situation called for it*, to holding my two colicky babies and bouncing on a ball for hours so I could get something done, to watching my son appear and take his first shaky breaths in the world outside, Grace has been there, telling me I was strong enough, and because of that I have been. </span></div>
<div style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">*On this day of all things Grace, you can hear <i>that </i>story at: <a href="http://mudrooms.org/archives/january-2014-grace/" target="_blank">http://mudrooms.org/archives/january-2014-grace/</a></span></div>
<div style="border-collapse: collapse; color: #222222;">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Click on the audio below my name (the 3rd one down). And don't worry--it's bleeped! </span></div>
Katy Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13728423830264254831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-945134197807592724.post-71241712636113245612014-06-28T17:05:00.000-08:002014-06-28T17:05:04.168-08:00Radical Presence
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<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimSJvOAkxoIGJ1xBgN0Waiew984fhkVb2ITLSlUFl0ikAMdoz_5rEBwLLr8rBgO5CaJpKupve2Qzev20cb3lZXqZmb1R96MM-lwPjXToU83uu6hFvwoz01tNwALWotc1xAnUcF53Uw_5Iw/s1600/DSCF4294.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimSJvOAkxoIGJ1xBgN0Waiew984fhkVb2ITLSlUFl0ikAMdoz_5rEBwLLr8rBgO5CaJpKupve2Qzev20cb3lZXqZmb1R96MM-lwPjXToU83uu6hFvwoz01tNwALWotc1xAnUcF53Uw_5Iw/s1600/DSCF4294.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Last year on the first day of summer
vacation my newly-graduated 2<sup>nd</sup> grade daughters woke up early to
make me breakfast in bed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From the
kitchen I could hear their joyful voices belting out their favorite song from
church:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Go Make a Difference.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
The feast they prepared was served
to me on a wooden breakfast tray and accented with some freshly picked
dandelions arranged in a squat glass jar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As I munched on my salad and raw carrots (apparently they’d been
listening the week before when I’d had an in-depth conversation with their father,
over a bowl of raw cookie dough, about my deep desire to eat more vegetables)
and drank my pitch-black coffee, the girls chattered on about their plans for
the summer:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>what trips we would take,
what camps they would attend, and which relatives were coming to visit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Good the thing the coffee was strong and the
spinach in the salad was full of iron to fortify me in the face of their
enviable energy. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Whether you are a work-at-home
parent or not, summer often signals an intensification of family time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whether on vacation, at family reunions or
squeezing in an evening hike under a sun that refuses to set, summer’s long
days call us to sink into our relationships.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Sofia Cavaletti, an Italian, Roman
Catholic theologian known for her work with children in the Catechesis of the
Good Shepherd, wrote that all relationships require moments of celebration,
when we can live out our connection with particular intensity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my Catholic Tradition, the Sacraments of
Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick,
Matrimony and Holy Orders provide us with moments to celebrate and intensely
live our covenant with God. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
At Mass recently, my five year-old
son pointed to an icon at the front of our Cathedral of “Our Lady Queen of
Peace,” and sounded out the words “Queen of Peace” above the image of Mary
holding the infant Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Reflecting on
the icon he whispered to me, “That’s probably because Mary is peace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Jesus is peace.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Later on that day he crawled into
my lap while I was reading a book and said, “Mom, I want to have some peace
with you.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sitting in the rocking chair
with Jackson I knew the power of a sacramental moment—one that conveyed the
grace of God to me through the weight of my growing boy’s head against my heart
and the sound of our breathing slowly synchronizing as we “had some
peace.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
A few years ago our Cathedral
Women’s Book Group read a book on women’s spirituality with different exercises
to try week-by-week.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One of my favorites
was the practice of taking one or two moments a day to sink into reality and to
be fully present to whatever is going on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>To do this we were encouraged to choose something that happens
predictably each day and to create a mantra, such as, “Katy, when you are
reading to your children be conscious of reading to your children.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or, “Katy, when you are talking to your
husband be conscious of talking to your husband.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Moments to live out our
relationships in intensity and peace abound daily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As summer nears I’d like to take out this
practice again and to consciously choose to sink into these moments, which
strung together, form a life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>From watching
the tide come in to visiting Disneyland, parenting calls for radical presence
to both the mundane and the extraordinary of everyday life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Perhaps this practice of trying to
be present to the sacramental moments of celebration within my relationships
with family and friends may bring some peace and energy to the busy summer
months this year, especially when combined with a salad for breakfast and extra
strong coffee.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->Katy Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13728423830264254831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-945134197807592724.post-54657770269761719842014-03-05T10:28:00.003-09:002014-03-05T10:28:30.334-09:00Return to Me It's Ash Wednesday and I'm 33. Which leads me to a rather morbid remembering of when I was 20 and I loved a song by David Wilcox called "Glory," which begins with the lyric, "I'd be dead by 32, if that was my best guest, and yet here I am this morning, singing 'happy birthday to me' as I clean up all this mess, because I'm left still alive without warning." The chorus continues on in an even more "upbeat" manner: "In the big boring middle of my long book of life, after the twist has been told, if you don't die in glory at the age of Christ, then your story is just getting old." <br />
<br />
For your own uplifting Ash Wednesday moment, you can listen to "Glory" yourself at <a href="https://myspace.com/davidwilcoxsite/music/song/glory-39838151-42238980">https://myspace.com/davidwilcoxsite/music/song/glory-39838151-42238980</a> and think of how old you're getting (or how much time you have left to get your life together before it all gets old).<br />
<br />
Yet, there is hope. Throughout Lent the readings from the Common Lectionary take us on a tour of the Prophets who God sent to the people of Israel in the midst of some of their darkest moments: the time preceding, during, and directly after the Babylonian Exile. In 587 BCE the Babylonian army invaded Jerusalem, destroyed the city, burned the Temple and marched the people off to a foreign land. Which brings me to another one of my favorite songs from my early 20s: Sublime's "Rivers of Babylon" (<a href="http://www.last.fm/music/Sublime/_/Rivers+Of+Babylon">http://www.last.fm/music/Sublime/_/Rivers+Of+Babylon</a>) whose lyrics come from Psalm 137: "By the rivers of Babylon there we sat weeping when we remembered Zion . . . How could we sing a song of the Lord in a foreign land?" (Psalm 137:1, 4)<br />
<br />
Before the exile, the Prophets (among them Jeremiah, 1st Isaiah, and Amos) admonished the people to return to their covenant relationship with God and to live lives of justice where the widow, orphan and alien are protected. Once in exile, though, it is the Prophets who remind the people that even though it seems they have lost everything (Temple, homeland, king) their ever faithful God is with them and has not abandoned them. Isaiah proclaims, "Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you" (49:15).<br />
<br />
In 539 BCE when the people are allowed to return to Israel to rebuild, the Prophets continue to remind them of God's love and kindness, and of their duty to the covenant. It is in this context Joel tells the people in today's 1st Reading, "Even now, return to me with your whole heart" (2:12). Even after everything the people of Israel have endured in the past 50+ years, Joel reminds them that God is always ready to welcome them into full relationship with him. Even now, at the age of 33, with all of my faults and failings and imperfections (and with the knowledge, that this morning on the first day of Lent I hollered at my 5 year-old as we rushed out the door for the bus and he stood screaming on the steps that he couldn't breathe in his balaclava "Well just take it off then!") I am invited to return with my whole heart to the God of Creations who humbled himself to be born, live and die as we all do, in order to invite us all into a life beyond the finality of death. <br />
<br />
And what does it mean, to return with my whole heart? In his book, <i>The Holy Longing</i>, (which is so profound that in five years I've only ever made it through the first two chapters before I've had to put it away so I can just think about it), Ronald Rohlheiser writes, "Soren Kirkegaard once defined a saint as someone who can will the one thing" (8). What is this ability, this discipline to will the one thing? How can I orient my entire life, like a sunflower following the light across the horizon, to the great gift of Life itself and the author of Creation, while eschewing everything else? <br />
<br />
In my Catechesis of the Good Shepherd Level 3 training for becoming a catechist for 9 to 12 year-olds we worked through many Old Testament Bible Studies. One of them was on the "Story of the Fall," Genesis chapter 3, where Eve eats the apple and all hell breaks loose. Despite the fact that I had read this passage many times, along with the other women at the training, we were mistaken when our trainer Ann Garrido asked us about which tree is in the middle of the Garden of Eden. Pointing to the verse where Eve tells the serpent, "We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; it is only about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden that God said, 'You shall not eat it or even touch it, or else you will die" (3:2b-3). Gently, Ann directed us back to our Bible Study from the previous day on the 2nd account of creation where it is written "Out of the ground the Lord God made grow every tree that was delightful to look at and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil" (2:9). And so the question became, What tree was in the middle of Eve's garden? Where was her focus and her energy, on the tree of life or the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Where is mine?<br />
<br />
And so today, even now, in the midst of everyday life, minutiae and brokenness, the invitation is issued again, "return to me with your whole heart." And that is a journey that takes a lifetime, as David Wilcox comes around to at the end of his song: "If you don't die in glory at the age of Christ, then your story is still coming true." What tree is in the middle of your garden? Katy Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13728423830264254831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-945134197807592724.post-87928368443819464952014-03-04T14:32:00.000-09:002014-03-04T17:07:16.320-09:00The Time of the Color Purple <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiEuvbvcOx99P67lC8hQz4wnzbB5tGAf0MZm8gZ25wWz5LHPnV1vUbb8R3YBifw5VlBDiqliEkuCRhhKXxb7Uf7qMcbppECmjyWvW7x6T_ZyN_St6ZTjtEePlOEicmnF0om7dEAiwj1AFJ/s1600/Jess+&+Jacks+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiEuvbvcOx99P67lC8hQz4wnzbB5tGAf0MZm8gZ25wWz5LHPnV1vUbb8R3YBifw5VlBDiqliEkuCRhhKXxb7Uf7qMcbppECmjyWvW7x6T_ZyN_St6ZTjtEePlOEicmnF0om7dEAiwj1AFJ/s1600/Jess+&+Jacks+.jpg" height="239" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My Christmas de-decorators </td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh49AYH_XT0FghxyYImU4LAXaqkDEzkfMUaoLf5x1-fyN1Xg-F5cNd1e8iljm4_JqMTnn0-9y6vcRdp6LkMqkqkh8VZTzrTBpdL6ozpvb1Y6SgzVoFNElb5Jm2xxlHGzBpHZ52b5rHJT8ag/s1600/Jess+&+Jacks+.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a>Today is Mardi Gras and tomorrow is Lent. Ash Wednesday is late this year, it seems. The light is already returning in full force to our Northern Latitude and lately the sun has been shining, making the days even brighter--sometimes painfully so until Jeff and I hunted under the bathroom sink and found the ziplock bag full of sunglasses, which we stashed away after our California vacation.<br />
<br />
Despite these signs of Spring there are still a few wayward and forgotten Christmas decorations in the corners of my house. Today in the quiet of the church, our staff took down the green of Ordinary Time and replaced it with Lenten purple and tonight I'll take down the red globe ornament in the kitchen and the star with the ribbon coming out of the top that displays a rosy Santa Claus benevolently smiling down on everyone who comes in the front door. Sometimes it is hard to break from the past and to move into the newness offered to us, but tomorrow in the second reading St. Paul will remind us in his letter to the Corinthians: "Behold, now is a very acceptable time; behold now is the day of salvation." <br />
<br />
Purple in its richness and royalty reminds me that this time of Lent is a time set apart. Yesterday, in the Atrium, Jackson visited Level 2 just in time for us to revisit the Preparation of the Chalice with a cruet of wine and a drop or two of water and its accompanying prayer: "By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity."<br />
<br />
"I wonder what this might tell us about our relationship with God . . . ." I mused.<br />
<br />
"That God is very big and we are very small," Jackson replied.<br />
<br />
Perhaps Lent is the time to reorient ourselves to the bigness of God and the smallness of ourselves. Not in a way that encourages shame or self-doubt, but in a way that recognizes the great Truth that we are part of a mystery we cannot even begin to fathom and that this God who is so big as to be beyond comprehension holds our tininess in a love as compassionate as it is merciful. <br />
<br />
14th century author, William Langland once wrote, "All the wickedness of this world that man might work or think is no more to the mercy of God than a live coal in the sea." God is very big, and we are very small. <br />
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Katy Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13728423830264254831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-945134197807592724.post-49277964042105856252013-10-05T11:45:00.003-08:002013-10-05T15:31:44.760-08:00Welcoming the Darknes<!--StartFragment-->
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8eKCJtSKZ7RZzmso5L7xHuF6p0zzPrzEMNWpRJIxUUY5Nn_kNNE20vr1w-KkFrbCcf4MN_kFWbwElwvl0ni9LEyHUXXBiaM92J-lvkh3WmzsaFM6mKMcfvbOgBySkDt5DUiSAku87VGaF/s1600/Jackson+Labyrinth+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8eKCJtSKZ7RZzmso5L7xHuF6p0zzPrzEMNWpRJIxUUY5Nn_kNNE20vr1w-KkFrbCcf4MN_kFWbwElwvl0ni9LEyHUXXBiaM92J-lvkh3WmzsaFM6mKMcfvbOgBySkDt5DUiSAku87VGaF/s1600/Jackson+Labyrinth+1.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jackson at the Shrine Labyrinth</td></tr>
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We’ve passed the Autumnal equinox
and are now plunging head first into darkness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Or that’s what it seems like to me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>If I’m honest, September 21<sup>st</sup> through December 21<sup>st</sup>
is my least favorite quarter of the year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Each day, we lose minutes of daylight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I love the Winter solstice when we can celebrate the return of the
light, and the Spring equinox when the balance changes and the light begins to
take over more and more of each 24 hour cycle, until June 21<sup>st</sup> when
it might as well be noon at 9pm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But in
my 33 years I have not made peace with the darkness that creeps in slowly to
dominate the greater part of our waking hours for the three months following
the Autumnal equinox.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I recently came
across a description of this seasonal lack of light which afflicts northern
climates in a novel I was reading:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“In
Shirley Falls the days were short now, the sun never climbing high in the sky,
and when a blanket of clouds sat over the small city it seemed as though
twilight began as soon as people finished their lunch, and when darkness came
it was a full darkness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most of the
people who lived there had lived there all their lives, and they were used to
the darkness, this time of year, but that did not mean they liked it” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Burgess Boys</i>, by Elizabeth Strout).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Amen</i>,
I thought.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I may have grown-up here and
returned again after college.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I may not
want to live anywhere else and I may be used to this darkness, but I don’t like
it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
In a fortuitous coincidence, I
spent this Autumnal equinox on a day-long retreat at the Shrine of St. Therese
in Juneau.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our women’s book group at the
Cathedral had long wanted to do a retreat, and when the opportunity arrived for
a dear friend of my mother’s to come in from down south to facilitate a
labyrinth retreat for us, it seemed perfect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The morning of the retreat did not seem perfect, however.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t want to wake up early and get out of
bed on my one day where sleeping in is a possibility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I didn’t want to spend the day outside
walking in circles in the rain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But I
went because I wanted to spend the day with women I loved, and I wanted to eat
the soup my mother was bringing for lunch, and I wanted to explore the
labyrinth—an ancient prayer form which I had little experience with.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Despite its common associations with
mazes, there is actually no way to get lost in a labyrinth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The windy path may confuse you with turns and
unexpected bends which will bring you close to the center and then far away in
a matter of steps, but on a labyrinth, if you follow the path, you will
eventually make your way to the center, and then after a period of reflection,
you will make your way out again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Prior
to the retreat, I hadn’t understood the point of labyrinths.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe I was trying too hard to have the kind
of experience I thought I should have (always a killer to prayer).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe I was afraid to abandon myself to this
experience.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so on this first walk
our facilitator, Twylla, asked us to just be open to what was, with no
expectations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One by one she started us
on our way, until all 18 of us were traveling the path at our own pace, all on
very different parts of our journey, and yet journeying together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
My mother was the first to enter
the narrow way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hung back, on the
outskirts of the labyrinth, watching in silence as the women walked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I was surprised.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Far from being anxious or bored, waiting for
my turn to begin, I realized I was already there with them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I felt the Holy Spirit whisper, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">See how your mother walks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There she is on the path.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>See how calm and purposeful her steps—she’s
not afraid of this journey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How quickly
she comes near the center, and how quickly she leaves it again to the outer
rings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>The journey is long, and
after my own first curves I realize I didn’t know where I was anymore.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How far
am I?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where will I go next?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>And the whispering of the Spirit, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Go slow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Go slow.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Be present. <o:p></o:p></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
And as I tried to sink into this
moment of walking with presence I noticed moments of peace and joy and moments
of anxiety.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How much further?</i> I wondered.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And the Spirit assured me, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Be
here, with your feet on this simple path.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></i>The rain came hard and then passed, but we kept walking, arranging a
hood or a scarf as we went.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Soon, as the
women reached the center and then began their way out again we began to pass
each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And as I stepped aside or
offered a silent hug I thought, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I love
her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></i>And then I imagined God saying the same thing in such delight and
joy and love, or maybe in grief or compassion:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I love her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I love her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
And then, just as I was about to
reach the center, I paused to hug a woman who was coming out, and she broke the
silence to whisper in my ear, “Did you see the rainbow?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I stood in the middle of the labyrinth and
turned my body toward the bright colors in the sky over Amalga harbor, and I
heard, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">I am there in your sorrow and your
joy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am there in the sunshine and the
rain. </i>And the question I didn’t even know I had been asking is thrown up at
me in stark relief, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Can I, in my joy and
my depression be oriented to the rainbow of faith and grief flung
together?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can I look for the beauty in
the darkness?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Sometimes what is, is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is sorrow and grief in this broken
world and we all must die.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And in the
midst of it, we often don’t know where we are:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Close to the middle?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Circling the
outskirts?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And there is the chaos of
not-knowing:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">How much further do I have to love this path?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To love my grandmother and my mother on this
path?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>But I do know that the ground
of our being is Love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This Holy Ground
that sometimes looks like a mud pit and other times a garden is really the
great I AM the constant One, who supports us in the Light and in the
darkness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And now is a time of
darkness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can I celebrate it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can I welcome it?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Later on, looking through some of the
reference books on Labyrinths which Twylla brought, I read about suggestions
for walking the labyrinth during the Autumnal equinox:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“This is the day to celebrate the return of
the darkness; it is a time of slowing down, of getting ready to burrow into the
earth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately . . . we have lost
touch with our need to wind down, to replenish, to rejuvenate. . . . Let this
walk be slow and calming with no tasks, no thoughts, no agendas.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sit peacefully in quiet meditation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If possible, take a nap in the center.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Walk out as slowly as you can” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Labyrinths from the Outside In</i> by Donna
Schaper and Carole Ann Camp).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Oh, to take a nap, and rest and be
in the center of this love and to allow myself to just feel the sadness that
comes upon me this time of year.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There
is a blessing in mortality.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a
blessing in darkness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a
blessing in sorrow and loss.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps
it’s the shadow side of joy and love and the deeper we feel one the deeper we
must feel the other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps it is a
sharing in the Paschal mystery and the Cross of Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
In the Atrium last week with my 9 to 12
year-olds, I led a meditation on the great Plan of God, to bring all of creation
to the full enjoyment of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Afterwards
one of my sixth graders who is an altar server asked me if we could go over to
the church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Of course,” I said, “What
would you like to do at the church?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
“I would like to carry the cross,”
he replied, referencing the cross that is carried in procession by an Altar
server at the beginning and the end of the Mass.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Whenever I carry the cross,” he reflected,
“something inside me wants to carry it more.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-indent: .5in;">
Perhaps the darkness is my cross in
these bleak months.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe in being
present to carrying it I could learn to want to carry it more.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or maybe I should just build a labyrinth in
my yard.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Katy Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13728423830264254831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-945134197807592724.post-40794443042770771682013-07-13T21:00:00.001-08:002013-07-13T21:00:26.882-08:00Stickers, Shots, & the Love of God <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEGn72Rj6ICnouovFJaho6voV5SAJvyGRoqKJhOKH-bBpbQWjaGKQYRD4eWC8yuT_oxFUrKQjZFoZjCbsjoY4woFmyLSXxPKchN-r6t71ppCBlYGXyuf9yA8HIpZFLkal41HXqM-poaIxW/s1600/Jacks+&+I+coloring.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEGn72Rj6ICnouovFJaho6voV5SAJvyGRoqKJhOKH-bBpbQWjaGKQYRD4eWC8yuT_oxFUrKQjZFoZjCbsjoY4woFmyLSXxPKchN-r6t71ppCBlYGXyuf9yA8HIpZFLkal41HXqM-poaIxW/s320/Jacks+&+I+coloring.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
Last week I took Jackson to the doctor for his kindergarten check-up and 5 year-old vaccines. It was terrible. It was even more terrible because I was not prepared for it to be terrible. A friend (who shall remain unnamed) took her 5 year-old in for his check-up a month ago. <i>She </i>was prepared for it to be terrible. In fact, we had a long conversation about if she should tell her son about the shots beforehand or not. But when the big moment came, much to her surprise (and mine when she told me later) he sat stoically still and silent with one single tear leaking out of his left eye through the entire ordeal. <br />
<br />
<i>Hmmm</i>, I thought, <i>maybe this will be no big deal</i>. <i>Maybe kindergarten shots don't hurt as much as they seemed to when Ani and Jessica underwent them three years ago. </i> And since I was so calm, Jackson was also calm. I told him about the shots ahead of time and that it would hurt a little but it would be fine. He sailed through his check-up, counting to ten, speaking in complete sentences, and correctly identifying stars, sailboats, and flags on the vision chart. He stayed calm while the nurse carefully swabbed his leg. He remained calm until the first needle went into his leg. And then he got that horrible expression on his face, the one he gets when he feels he has been deeply betrayed by life. His body went rigid, his face turned purple, and before I had time to react we were in full-out screaming panic mode. Well, not me, or the nurse, thank goodness, but definitely Jackson. As the tears streamed down his face, he begged to go home and he told me he didn't want to do this. I, meanwhile, held down his upper body while the nice woman from the front desk sat on his shins and the final two shots were administered.<br />
<br />
There really aren't any words to describe how it feels to go through this experience with your child. On the one hand you allow for these things to happen to your child because you believe it will protect him from nasty diseases. On the other hand, you feel terrible that you've stood by and been complicit in causing him pain. And all you wish is that you could take the shots for him, that it would be your leg that the needles went into. But it can't be. And that frankly, stinks. So walking out into the waiting room with my red faced, tear streaked, hiccuping little boy, I felt a little fragile. All I wanted to do was escape from the room of other parents who all seemed to be waiting with their own unsuspecting 5 year-olds and take Jackson to the frozen yogurt shop for his after-shot treat. But of course we couldn't leave without stickers. Doctors get a lot of mileage out of stickers. And at our Pediatrician's office you get one sticker for every shot. Jackson tentatively looked through the basket of stickers picking out one flaming red Hot Wheels sticker, one neon green Hot Wheels sticker, and one big purple smiley face sticker. "Here, Mom," he said, handing the last one to me, "this is your sticker." I peeled the backing off and stuck it to the center of my fuchsia dress. I wore it for the rest of the day. A sticker on your chest does make you feel brave: a badge of honor you've fairly earned in the necessary emotional pains of parenthood.<br />
<br />
As a L'Arche Assistant, the year after college, I attended a retreat where one of the leaders spoke of her own personal realization of the all-encompassing love of God. It was five days after her son was born. Driving home from a doctor's appointment with her husband at the wheel, she sat in the back beside the baby's car seat. All of a sudden a car cut dangerously close in front of them, causing her husband to slam hard on the brakes. Instinctively, she leaned her body over as close as she could to shield her son. In that moment she realized two things: one, that she would die for this child without giving it a second thought, and two, that this all encompassing, sacrificial love she felt for her son wasn't even a fraction of the love that God felt for her, for all people.<br />
<br />
In Hebrew, the word for God's mercy and compassion is closely related to the word for "womb." Sometimes I impersonalize this love of God. Sure, I know about it and I talk about it. But too often I don't realize that the struggles and hurts of my life, no matter how large or small, all take place within this compassionate love of a God who feels them with me. For how can a Mother not feel the pain of the child of Her womb, the child of her Heart? The next time I have a really hard day, maybe I should give God a sticker. <br />
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Katy Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13728423830264254831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-945134197807592724.post-88113183566352305742013-05-12T13:06:00.001-08:002013-05-12T13:06:16.779-08:00His Mother Kept All These Things in Her Heart <!--StartFragment-->
<br />
This past week I was sitting in my rocking chair by the fireplace
and typing away on my laptop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My
daughter, Jessica came up to me, “I’m bored, Mom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I want to help you.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Well,” I told her, “I’m writing an article
about motherhood for Mother’s Day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would
you like to help me?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She quickly
grabbed pen and paper and began to write.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Here is her reflection on motherhood:<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbTOgCSU5qxwBBYg5lQhDt4OdRzHXGR2FT8uyCiID0go4Xg7oIJenb9m7KwVQN_YPnfI3898YMvEOtcBJXxXfKRhfHs6A2s5IdnWf_9nUObgXdYsGrWgY9Wwuh9gocGE_3LMTrG0yqzbmL/s1600/DSCF4345.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbTOgCSU5qxwBBYg5lQhDt4OdRzHXGR2FT8uyCiID0go4Xg7oIJenb9m7KwVQN_YPnfI3898YMvEOtcBJXxXfKRhfHs6A2s5IdnWf_9nUObgXdYsGrWgY9Wwuh9gocGE_3LMTrG0yqzbmL/s320/DSCF4345.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Me and my co-author</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“For Mother’s Day we usually bring you breakfast in bed, but
that isn’t what Mother’s Day is all about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It’s about celebrating what mothers do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Your vocation as mothers is keeping children in touch with God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That’s what Mary did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When they went to the Temple in Jerusalem,
when they figured out Jesus was missing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She worried so much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But when she
saw what was happening in the Temple, she saw Jesus sitting in the Temple
listening to the teachers, listening and asking questions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She thought, he has a special gift!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I sometimes wonder what he was asking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She explains how to have a good relationship
with children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She understood him
well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She had no idea what would happen
next, but she knew God knew and God had planned a path for Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She tried to understand, though no one can
know everything.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But she tried to
understand her son.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Personally, I hadn’t thought much about the finding of Jesus
in the Temple as a model for parenthood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It seemed to me more like an episode in the Bible that showcases the
humanness of Jesus’ parents—To lose your child is about the most dramatic way
you can fail as a parent or caregiver.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The basic requirement of motherhood is to at least know where your
children are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My recurring parenting
nightmare is that I’ve forgotten one of my three children somewhere: at the
church, at their schools, at home, at the store . . . <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Surprisingly, the only time I have lost a
child was at a playground and I didn’t even know she was lost until she came up
behind me sobbing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She’s currently
writing a story about it for her 2<sup>nd</sup> grade class.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It will be shared on Author’s day for all the
2<sup>nd</sup> grade parents to hear—I can’t wait.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLDoyMxGYkkkeUM3rIM55esT58oN5xAH-dmKl5BlqtcoD6z76EJasE3SjR0AUThsKYTzMKiB13Ksa8DMCb_DdH8luWVygA3WeLeZQt2ZYy64OAJC1kMOx-1bar6Sp1yfZfea5qSDPSvTy2/s1600/DSCF5373.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLDoyMxGYkkkeUM3rIM55esT58oN5xAH-dmKl5BlqtcoD6z76EJasE3SjR0AUThsKYTzMKiB13Ksa8DMCb_DdH8luWVygA3WeLeZQt2ZYy64OAJC1kMOx-1bar6Sp1yfZfea5qSDPSvTy2/s320/DSCF5373.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coloring with Jacks</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
How embarrassing and terrifying to find you’ve lost your
child in a big city and then how maddening to find him 3 days later, sitting in
the Temple like nothing had happened.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Parents of teenagers can add their own inflection to Mary’s question,
“Son, why have you done this to us?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Your
father and I have been looking for you with great anxiety” (Luke 2:48b).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus responds (without the apologetic
groveling any parent might have expected), “Why were you looking for me?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s
house?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Luke 2:49) The Gospel
continues, “but they did not understand what he said to them” (Luke 2:50). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The account concludes, “He went down with
them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all
these things in her heart” (Luke 2:51).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As mothers, there is so much we can hold in our hearts—our
children’s triumphs and defeats, their joys and sorrows, their loves, and their
bitterness, but maybe the hardest thing to hold within our hearts is our
children’s uncertainty—the important work that we all must do of discovering
who we are and who God calls us to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is not work to be taken lightly, and it is not work that comes
easily.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes it is cut tragically
short or changed forever by violence or accident, disease, mental illness, or
addiction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jessica reminds me that Mary did not know what God’s plan was
for her son.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She knew he was a precious
gift, and yet he is a gift that is hers and profoundly not hers at the same
time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God’s plans for this child, for
all children, go far beyond the narrow dreams of their parents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And God’s plan for Jesus led both him and his
mother to Calvary and death on a Cross in the company of criminals.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the Opening Prayer of the 5<sup>th</sup>
Sunday of Easter, there is a line which caused me as a mother, woman, and
disciple of Jesus, to catch my breath: “Almighty and ever-living God,
constantly accomplish the Paschal Mystery within us.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Christians is this really our prayer—to
experience the Passion, death and Resurrection in our lives constantly?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5chuObmDDR1JzoBxrhdxui19DXS_JlzE-gor3wMhr81KmaqvTjJYpkvbCp4RD8gPOOQeC2kUZ50uEp-kQnWsP7KYMzNxIPGzCYiCXWwyqwtCf9UGf5MiscGFxi9nHLqj9wtPmfprQpgjg/s1600/DSCF4368.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5chuObmDDR1JzoBxrhdxui19DXS_JlzE-gor3wMhr81KmaqvTjJYpkvbCp4RD8gPOOQeC2kUZ50uEp-kQnWsP7KYMzNxIPGzCYiCXWwyqwtCf9UGf5MiscGFxi9nHLqj9wtPmfprQpgjg/s320/DSCF4368.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At a church event with Ani</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I would like my children to grow old, have satisfying and
useful careers, embrace a vocation of marriage, single or consecrated
life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I would like them to know love all
the days of their lives and (if I’m being really honest) to always live within
a few miles of me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Despite the good will
behind all of my noble dreams for my children, the most courageous, the most
loving thing I can do as a mother at times, is to sit back and hold all of the
fragmented pieces of their lives, all of the things that are incomprehensible
to me, in my heart.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To ponder them, even
when I am greatly troubled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To trust in
the new life promised beyond the shadow of the cross.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<!--EndFragment-->
Katy Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13728423830264254831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-945134197807592724.post-70655303293236669842013-05-02T10:50:00.000-08:002013-05-02T10:50:14.904-08:00Reaching for Jesus In our Church we have many ways to pray: words, song, gesture, signs, and symbols. They offer us a way to express the inexpressible and through them we are formed into an ever closer relationship with God and each other. I recently read an article by a Catholic lay minister which argued in favor of receiving Eucharist on the tongue instead of in the hand. While I appreciate his devotion to the Eucharist and agree with his desire for all people to approach Jesus in the Eucharist with respect, I was taken aback by his description of people who receive Eucharist in the hand as less devout than those who receive on the tongue. In our religion, and all of life, there is a temptation to judge our actions against those of another. In talking with a priest about this issue, he urged me to take this matter to prayer: "Jesus will let you know." Sometimes I pray best with writing. Here is my reflection on receiving the Eucharist in the hand: <br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Walking up to the altar, hands in
prayer, and then lifting them up, one supported by the other—as a beggar to ask for the bread she needs to continue on in life—begging the Lord to come and
be my food and drink, to be all that I need, and all that I want to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love the way it makes me an active
participant in this sacrament.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I lift my
hands up and ask Jesus to come to me, to live in me, to nourish me, to
strengthen me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I cry out “change
me.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I know I am not perfect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But in our Mass I have had the opportunity to
confess my sins “through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous
fault,” and I have told the Lord, as the Roman Centurion did, “I am not worthy
to have you come under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be
healed.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We do not approach the
sacrament because we are holy, because we are worthy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We approach the sacrament because Jesus, the
Good Shepherd, has called us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He invites
us to this feast and we respond with holy joy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This covenant of love reminds me of marriage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jeff and I began dating halfway through
senior year of college, at a (seemingly) less than opportune time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Among other normal college woes (finals, break-ups,
the unavoidable drama of living with 3 other 21 year-old girls) I was also
dealing with the constant pain of a back injury that had herniated two of the
discs in my mid-spine. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the midst of the pain and the confusion and the stress of
finishing college, a wonderful man walked into my life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was tall, handsome, kind, and
intelligent—he was also the best friend of my recent ex-boyfriend and had until
a month before that been dating one of my housemates.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So when he sent me an e-mail saying he was “interested” I didn’t know
what to do.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, I was “interested” too,
but was this really prudent?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
wasn’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I prayed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not because I thought of it first, but
because a wonderful, wise woman, named Fred (Winifred), who had been my spiritual
director on and off throughout college listened to my entire convoluted,
dramatized, hormonal story very patiently and then asked me with her
God-loves-you-no-matter-what-eyes, “Have you asked Jesus what you should do?” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“No.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I said
honestly. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Later that day with my journal in my hand, I sat in my attic
bedroom with a candle burning on the bedside table and wrote.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“What shall I do?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What do you want for me and Jeff?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I closed my eyes and sat for a while.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And then I saw it in my mind’s eye, a single
image:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus, taking my hand and
interlacing it with Jeff’s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That was it,
and it was enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Better than words. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Marriage is not always an easy vocation and when we have our
disagreements and irritations and annoyances, it is the reaching out for each other
that keeps our covenant strong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the Eucharist, I reach out for Jesus with my hands and
when I do I am telling the Lord that I desire to walk with him all the days of
my life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<span style="font-family: Cambria; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: "MS 明朝"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Perhaps for some people, receiving Eucharist on
the tongue, or while kneeling, is the best way to embody their relationship
with the Lord.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are different ways
we encounter our risen Christ, one not better than the other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And I respect that our church allows for
these different prayer postures and gestures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What is essential is not the mechanics by which we receive the precious
body and blood of our Lord, but the intention behind it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus touched lepers and washed dusty, dirty
feet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t </span>think he minds our human hands, reaching out for him with joy
and hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
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<div class="MsoNormal">
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Katy Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13728423830264254831noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-945134197807592724.post-90218799914293345292013-04-13T23:02:00.002-08:002013-04-15T10:53:58.178-08:00He Rose Again<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB81ocmoaBOTEkIsyoWh9onSLtya4Fspt3QRJ4BMjQlvAZMPFQs9nUOWslfsAz3qA3WBhuArW5ixUukYFvwr09CYHoXwuaiR3wlmVM6GiBOoaKYu-luE6BQXA1wsKp6Ce99wxg2gqEPuvX/s1600/DSCF5391.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="255" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjB81ocmoaBOTEkIsyoWh9onSLtya4Fspt3QRJ4BMjQlvAZMPFQs9nUOWslfsAz3qA3WBhuArW5ixUukYFvwr09CYHoXwuaiR3wlmVM6GiBOoaKYu-luE6BQXA1wsKp6Ce99wxg2gqEPuvX/s320/DSCF5391.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The City of Jerusalem in our Atrium</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
“But why?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why did he
have to die?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The question of my, then
seven year-old, goddaughter still rings in my ears.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was near Easter time, a year ago, and we
had been meditating in the Atrium on the Paschal Narratives:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem,
the Last Supper with his disciples, his arrest, Passion, and Crucifixion.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her question, asked with all of the innocence
of childhood and also the necessity of one who really needs to know, brought me
up short. A few months later, attending a catechist training in California, I
brought up this moment before the group.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>“What do you say?” I asked,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“What
can you possibly say to this question?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>After listening to several ideas, our trainer reflected, “the best way
I’ve heard it explained is that Jesus had to die because he was born.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He became human.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is the mystery and the scandal of the
Incarnation. God became human and therefore by the very nature of his birth,
his death too, was foretold.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And it’s true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are
all born.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we will all die.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Normally, this reality doesn’t cause us to
stop going about the minutiae of life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In
the face of mortality we continue to take the dog for walks, read bedtime
stories, and do the dishes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
sometimes, the reality is too much. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On the night of Easter Monday I couldn’t sleep.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I tossed and turned in bed for a while and
then decided I could at least get up and do something useful—surf
Facebook.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Throughout the newsfeed,
friends from my college years had posted pictures, hundreds of them, with a man
named Mike Harry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His name wasn’t
familiar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span> So I followed the different links,
looked up the different pictures, and discovered Mike Harry.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There were pictures of him on college SEARCH
retreats, and pictures at Jack & Dan’s, the neighborhood Gonzaga bar.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He seemed like a fun guy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Usually with a group of friends, his arm
thrown around shoulders, smiling, making goofy faces.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I finally looked up his own Facebook page and
learned more of his story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After Gonzaga,
he moved back home to Wyoming, fell in love, got married, and was accepted into
nursing school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amongst the engagement
pictures and wedding photos, the Hawaiian vacation shots and pictures with his
dog, were ones of him smiling with his head shaved, his athletic form
thinning.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The last picture I found was
dated a week ago, Mike and a college friend were watching a Gonzaga basketball game
together, but Mike was in a hospital bed, hooked up to oxygen, his wasted body
looking like it was almost fading away—but with a smile still bigger than
life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Apparently, Mike had brain cancer and he died on Easter Monday.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One post from his Mom on Good Friday read,
“I’m sitting here watching my little boy sleep and thinking of how proud I am
to be his mom.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As the hours stretched
from midnight to 3am I read about this stranger, who had lived so full and
beautiful a life, and had touched so many, thinking, just like my goddaughter,
“But why?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why did he have to die?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The next day I learned of another death, also from cancer,
also way too young.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Renee Walker did her
student teaching many years ago with my mother and then took a job as a
kindergarten/first grade teacher at Gastineau school where she taught up
through last May.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When she found out our
family was in the Gastineau school district she invited me to observe in her
classroom so I could know more about the community before the girls began
school. When the girls were kindergarteners, she came over to our house and
visited with them before they made the big jump from their small Montessori
pre-school/kindergarten to “the BIG school.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even though they didn’t end up being in her classroom for 1<sup>st</sup>
grade, the girls loved seeing her in the hallways and around school, always
with a warm word and smile for them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The morning after she died, the second graders had a special counseling session to process the news of her passing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apparently it was a
pretty tough time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A & J told me how
they sat around and shared stories about Mrs. Walker and then near the end one
of the kids remembered how last year, in Mrs. Walker’s 1<sup>st</sup> grade
class, they had had a guinea pig named “Sunshine,” and when Sunshine died they
buried him together and sang “You are my Sunshine” to the guinea pig.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So, together in the counselor’s classroom
they decided to sing “You Are My Sunshine” to Mrs. Walker.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“That’s when we lost it” Ani told me
matter-of-factly. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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The next day, I went to our morning Atrium session to be a
catechist with the three to six year olds.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I felt heavy, not like one filled with Easter joy, but weighted down
with the awareness that many people--spouses,
children, friends, colleagues of these two remarkable individuals--were hurting and
grieving and asking, “But why?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>At one point I invited one of the children over to our diorama of the
City of Jerusalem.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We use this raised
map to tell the Passion Narrative and to “walk” through the streets of
Jerusalem from the Upper Room, to the Mount of Olives, to Caiaphas’ House, and
Herod’s Palace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we came to the
Tower of Antonia, where Pontius Pilate lived, and I told the child, “it was
here, that it was decided that Jesus would die,” he leaned in close to me and
lisped in my ear with certainty and joy, “but don’t worry ‘Taty’, he ‘wose’ again.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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When death and sorrow touch our lives, we continue on living
in hope and faith that this is not the end of the story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As my Gonzaga SEARCH retreat friends often
say, “The best is yet to come.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Remembering
Mrs. Walker, Jessica told me, “She gave us hope and courage as we started our new
school.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What beautiful gifts we can
carry with us from lives fully lived, hope and courage in this adventure and in
the one to come.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->
Katy Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13728423830264254831noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-945134197807592724.post-18649426111247805432013-04-08T09:40:00.000-08:002013-04-08T09:41:51.547-08:00Annunciation<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>Throughout
the history of Christianity there have been countless heresies asserting that
Jesus only looked human, but really wasn’t.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>He couldn’t possibly have felt the pain of the crucifixion, and he
surely didn’t suffer the messy human woes we deal with on a daily basis.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Indeed, it is hard to believe in the true
humanity of Christ. Being human means dealing with blood and vomit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being human means stubbing your toe, losing
your balance, and blushing in embarrassment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Being human means knowing loneliness, and also the joy of
companionship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Being human means so much,
that is difficult to ascribe to one who is also God.
<br />
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;">Today, we
celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation. In the Gospel we hear of the Angel
Gabriel approaching a young woman in the backwoods of Israel, the village of
Nazareth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know she’s probably all of
14 at the time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And the angel brings her
amazing news, she will bear within her body a child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not just any child, a fully human child,
true, but one who is also divine.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Emmanuel, the one her oppressed people have been waiting for, the
fleshly sign that their God is truly with them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>Sometimes
when I reflect on Mary, I fear I am in danger of not believing in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">her</i> humanity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s easier to think of our holy mother as pure
and removed from all of the messy things that make us human.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I haven’t seen any statues of Mary where
she’s holding the infant Jesus and you can see the remnants of spit-up on her
shoulder.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s hard to imagine Mary in the throes of transition
labor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s hard to imagine Mary throwing-up
in the bushes from morning sickness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s
hard to imagine her experiencing all the vomit and blood of motherhood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>But she
did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>Every woman
who has born a living being within her own body has felt to some extent the
emotions Mary must have experienced:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>joy,
sheer panic, fear, and endless questions about what this means for her life and
the lives of those around her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is
an awesome responsibility in bearing a child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The angel was right in cautioning Mary in the beginning, “Do not be
afraid.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even though your body, your
life, your capability to love and cope will be stretched seemingly beyond their
limits, do not be afraid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t fear as you experience the power of
child birth, or on the many sleepless nights when your infant will cry and do
what you might, you won’t be able to comfort him.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t weary as you wipe innumerable tears,
and change countless diapers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Don’t fear
even when you sometimes think you can’t go on.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Do not be afraid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Creator,
the Divine Mother of all, is with you.
<br />
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<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"></span>In the
sanctuary of the Cathedral there is a beautiful wooden statue of Mary cradling
the infant Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Growing-up I would
often stare at this statue when the homily lost my attention and make a silent
prayer:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“God, I want to be like
that.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On Mary’s face is a peaceful look
of contentment and joy in this beautiful child who is hers to care for.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is a true picture of motherly bliss.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But it is only one image of motherhood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where’s our statue of Mary with sleep-heavy
eyes, trying to comfort a troubled infant who is suffering from an ear
infection?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<br />
Why not keep our Mary on a pedestal
at all times in clean, white, spit-up free robes?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why should we challenge our understanding of
Mary with an acceptance of her humanity?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I think it is because when I realize that the Mother of God not only
felt joy in holding her sleeping child in her arms, but that she also rocked
him on nights of illness, and she answered his incessant “why” questions at the
age of three, then I understand that when I do these very same, very human
tasks, I too am caring for the body of Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In these days of motherhood, when the endless physical tasks of caring
for small children leave me little time for quiet prayer and contemplation, I
can let my mothering become my prayer and worship of God.<br />
<br />
We can imagine Mary birthing Jesus,
nursing him, caring for him in illness, and finally holding him in her arms
when he was taken down from the cross. We can imagine her saying with all of
her strong motherly love, “This is my body, given up for you.<br />
<br />
Motherhood, fatherhood, and the
business of living is often a messy undertaking.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we can remember through all of the vomit
and blood of pregnancy and childbirth, and every time we soothe a hurt child, or
spend a sleepless night caring for an aging parent or an ailing neighbor, that
in all of its humanness, our sacrifice is one of giving our body for the other,
who is ultimately Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>
Katy Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13728423830264254831noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-945134197807592724.post-15007386065026232982013-03-22T11:29:00.000-08:002013-03-23T21:57:56.901-08:00Washing Feet<!--StartFragment-->
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">In another week, the holiest time of our Catholic liturgical
year, the Triduum, will be upon us.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;">Beginning with Holy Thursday and continuing through Good Friday and Holy
Saturday to the celebration of Easter, we will live the Paschal Mystery of
Christ.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;">My favorite liturgy of the year
is the Holy Thursday Mass where the church, in a particular way, commemorates
the Last Supper Jesus shared with his disciples and the last commission he gave
them before he was crucified, to wash each other’s feet.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></span></div>
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</tbody></table>
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<a href="webkit-fake-url://44EF4C14-3627-4F93-9831-1B62545A8A39/imgres.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a></div>
The year after I graduated from college I spent a year volunteering
in a L’Arche community in Washington state as a live-in assistant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>L’Arche is an international federation of
group homes for people with developmental disabilities (called “Core Members”)
and those who assist them (“Assistants”).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Jean Vanier, a Catholic theologian and the founder of the L’Arche
community, wrote in his book <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Scandal
of Service</i>, “The fact that Jesus washed his disciples’ feet may seem to
some people a simple, ordinary gesture; to others it is something shocking and
challenging.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In L’Arche we consider the
washing of the feet to be an important and highly significant act.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><br /></span></span>
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;">My year in L’Arche changed forever my view of service— both
what it means to serve as well as to be served.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;">My days were filled up with the everyday tasks of making meals,
scrubbing toilets, sanitizing kitchen counters, handing out medications,
packing lunches, and giving baths.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;">For a
22 year-old straight out of college, the responsibility was immense at times.
How was I, with the help of my fellow assistants, to make sure that the 5 core
members that we lived with had all of their daily needs met?</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;">It wasn’t long before I realized that it
wasn’t just the physical needs that we were here to serve, but it was the need
of every person, whether assistant or core member, to belong to a community, to
be loved unconditionally, and to be seen and heard for who they were.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;">And in these needs I received far more than I
gave.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;">The night before I left the
community to embark on the next great adventure of my life (marriage), unable
to sleep, I sat in the group-home kitchen at 1am and cried.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;">I didn’t want to think I would never be
invited to another of Jacob’s impromptu drum concerts, that I wouldn’t have
anymore dance parties in the kitchen with Amy and Jennifer, that Lance wouldn’t
pat me on the back and tell me I’d done, “real good”, or that Leslie wouldn’t
answer me with a “thumbs up” when I asked her how she was.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In L’Arche houses the washing of the feet takes on a
significant meaning because in this blessed and simple community the beauty of
human connection is revealed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How
important is loving, tender, human touch when one cannot talk or hear or see?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How important is loving, tender, human touch
when one is pre-occupied with the problems of the world, the stress of running
a household, the scourge of depression, or the inability to love oneself?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>L’Arche assistants learn sooner or later that
we all have disabilities, some are just more visible than others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When we washed each other’s feet at the
L’Arche house, we did it beyond the roles of assistant and core member.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were simply brothers and sisters before
God.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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In the excitement of our new pope, Francis I, being chosen,
some of the first images of Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio which surfaced on
the internet were of the Cardinal washing and kissing feet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 2001 Cardinal Bergoglio visited a hospice
where he washed the feet of 12 AIDS patients.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In 2005 he chose to celebrate the Mass for the Lord’s Supper at a
maternity hospital in Buenos Aires where he washed the feet of 12 new and
expectant mothers.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 2008 he visited a
rehabilitation center and washed the feet of 12 recovering drug addicts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the days, months and years to come, we
will doubtless learn more about this man who has been chosen to lead our
church, but these images speak poignantly of one who takes the Gospel call to
wash each other’s feet seriously.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After silently washing the feet of the disciples, Jesus tells
them, “If I therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought
to wash one another’s feet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have given
you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some things are best said without words. <o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->
Katy Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13728423830264254831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-945134197807592724.post-12276961247687188542013-03-04T21:09:00.001-09:002013-03-04T21:09:51.648-09:00Remain<!--StartFragment-->
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Today in Monday school, I meditated on the Parable of the
True Vine with four 8 year-olds. In the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, the
religious formation we do at the Cathedral, the True Vine is the central
parable for the older children (6 to 9 years old), just as the Good Shepherd is
for the younger children (3 to 6 years old).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/156/e/8/vine_by_waitforawhile-d52cmj7.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" class="fullview " collect_rid="1:306279187" data-gmiclass="ResViewSizer_fullimg" gmindex="11" height="164" id="gmi-ResViewSizer_fullimg" name="gmi-ResViewSizer_fullimg" src="http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs71/i/2012/156/e/8/vine_by_waitforawhile-d52cmj7.png" style="border-bottom-style: none; border-left-style: none; border-right-style: none; border-top-style: none; display: inline; margin-top: auto;" width="320" /></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="clear: left; float: left; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></span>It surprised me the first time I heard about the pull of the
True Vine for these children.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With the
Good Shepherd parable we use painted wooden figures of a <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>shepherd and several sheep, which come in and
go out of a sheepfold made out of hot-glued rocks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The attraction of this material seems
obvious—cute farm animals, a sympathetic hero-shepherd who watches over his
sheep and calls them by name, and a popsicle stick sheepfold gate to open and
close.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In contrast, for the presentation of the Parable of the True
Vine, we use a simple vine plant—often half dead because I’m not great at
keeping anything which needs care (other than children and animals) alive for
any length of time. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But when the parable was presented to the eight year-olds today,
it was obvious something sacred had occurred.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This was just the image they had been hungering for, “I am the vine and
you are the branches.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“How close are we to Jesus?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I wondered. We examined the plant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Could we tell where the vine ended and the branches began? <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What about the life force of the vine—the sap? Was it the
same in the vine as in the branches?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What could it be on the True Vine, this sap that connects us?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Love,” they said, “Jesus,” “Grace,” “the
Spirit. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“There is a word,” I told them, “that is repeated ten times
in this parable—‘remain.’”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We thought
about it together.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What does it mean to
remain on the vine?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How do we
remain?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Going to church,” they
ventured, “loving people,” “praying,”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>and then the one boy in our group almost shouted,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“that’s what we’re doing right now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are remaining.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And there it was, the great mystery and challenge of the
spiritual life distilled so succinctly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Right now, in this moment filled with love and wonder, we remain. Right
here, right now, on the holy ground of scripture meeting everyday life, we
remain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Right here, right now, as we
recognize and honor Jesus’ presence among us, and in us, we remain. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
During these past weeks of Lent, while I could have been
spending extra time in contemplative prayer and fasting, I’ve been instead
rushing from here to there trying to get all of the things I think I need to
accomplish, done.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Between regrets or
longing for the past to anxiety or longing for the future, I haven’t spent much
time in the here and now. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Today, Jess stayed home from school to recuperate from the
stomach flu.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While I prepared for this
afternoon’s lessons and worked on talks I’ll be giving this weekend at a
catechist training, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>she watched “Alice
and Wonderland” and read books.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At 1pm,
an hour before Jeff came home and I headed to work, she looked at me and said,
“Mom, let’s DO something.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So I pulled
my rocking chair up to the couch and placed the piano bench between us and we
played Uno and listened to the “Abba” Pandora Station (Jess’s pick).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jess rolled her eyes while I sang along to
“SOS” and “Money, Money, Money” and then joined me wholeheartedly in “Mamma
Mia.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And in the middle of our second
card game I realized it—this is holy ground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Here, playing this card game, listening to this music, being with you
little daughter, is where I am privileged to “remain.” <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The parable of the True Vine ends, “As the Father loves me,
I love you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Remain in my love.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It doesn’t matter if we are in church, at
Bible study with Second graders, or playing Uno and singing to 70s music, the
call is the same—right here, right now—remain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<!--EndFragment-->
Katy Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13728423830264254831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-945134197807592724.post-57038702675860612082013-02-12T12:32:00.001-09:002013-02-12T12:32:50.593-09:00Gentle Journey<!--StartFragment-->
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdZQO3AWc9Xkc-U6UdZcxLExkFc4ybW6yL6j_0JAmFuQBa1ZAPyZXUC8oBchR3mrv9xtKmCf2QU5DXIkATV3oVP7CRYpM3RSQL26kXWcRbPeihRkEEIsEMw-MfyaJ7T5mNazlJRfTl5-6_/s1600/Lent+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="110" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdZQO3AWc9Xkc-U6UdZcxLExkFc4ybW6yL6j_0JAmFuQBa1ZAPyZXUC8oBchR3mrv9xtKmCf2QU5DXIkATV3oVP7CRYpM3RSQL26kXWcRbPeihRkEEIsEMw-MfyaJ7T5mNazlJRfTl5-6_/s320/Lent+2.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Tomorrow is
Ash Wednesday, and as always, I am eager to jump in with both feet—give up
gluten and sweets and coffee and bacon and sausage, give up yelling at my
children and speaking poorly of others, make an effort to do conscious acts of
service for my husband each day, give the dog extra attention, and to write and
pray.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>And then,
this morning, preparing to cantor at tomorrow’s Mass by reading through the Ash
Wednesday Morning Prayer and then the daily readings I found this line, “God,
lead us gently in our journey to you this holy season of Lent.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it made me stop and breathe for a
moment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Lead us gently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For so often we become impatient with ourselves,
with others, with the world, with the church, and we want to make it all change
now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Root out all of the injustice and
iniquity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Stamp out everything within us
that takes us from God's loving presence and the community surrounding us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>But this
work is a slow work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God knows that.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a child grows slowly in her mother's womb,
we are slowly growing and changing and developing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are slowly becoming the people we are
meant to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This season of Lent is a
time for change and restraint and new ambitions on our spiritual journey, but
the gentleness is what will make this change, restraint, and ambition sustainable
and deeply rooted in who we are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In the
second reading for Ash Wednesday, the Apostle Paul tells us “Behold, now is a
very acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our human spirits need to know that it is not
too late, it is always the right time to turn away from sin and to be faithful
to the Gospel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I was a new mother,
I was determined that I would be perfect.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I knew I had been blessed with these children (my twin daughters)
through the grace of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I deeply
believed that God would therefore give me the grace needed to parent them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And indeed God has.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yet that grace hasn't always made me,
through my own human failings, graceful and serene.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My motherhood was formed in the crucible of
two colicky infants who cried for a majority of their waking hours that
consistently interfered with my (spiritual) beauty sleep.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Slowly, gently and with many tears of my own,
I learned that the grace is in the waking up bleary eyed and stumbling through
the dark to nurse a wailing child, change her diaper, bounce her back to
sleep.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The action of service is the
prayer, the practice, and even if I do not feel particularly loving while I
perform them, I am still being formed in love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>I do
believe God is with us, especially in the hard times and I know now that grace,
no matter how miraculous, does not guarantee us an easy passage of growth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Parenting is a daily practice and each day is
an acceptable time to pick up my cross joyfully.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This morning, my daughters were anxious to
write an e-mail to their father who is away for a few days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I love their devotion to him and their
excitement to compose, but as the interruptions increase (“How do I capitalize,
again?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Where’s the exclamation point?”)
I also feel rising within me a knot of tension as I sit down to consider my
Lenten practice of writing and prayer. So I take another deep breath and
remember to relax and to pray for the gentle grace of God to support me on this
journey of Lent and more importantly on the lifelong journey of
motherhood.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Katy Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13728423830264254831noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-945134197807592724.post-29965281199774690612013-02-02T15:49:00.001-09:002013-02-02T15:49:50.580-09:00Candlemas<!--StartFragment-->
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6JeuXBVP2S_fVwkKCAOYcDfSJhGvjizVlFNAwnp8KXU6DB3-0vS5zrY3oceDJIjfJ_YKmN3loWqo90HngaoozkKtzT1aj-ivz7q-KJtLtL6UPlUKzrbPyCSQyIokQVuxTbtGQm9Zpr7tG/s1600/DSCF5292.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6JeuXBVP2S_fVwkKCAOYcDfSJhGvjizVlFNAwnp8KXU6DB3-0vS5zrY3oceDJIjfJ_YKmN3loWqo90HngaoozkKtzT1aj-ivz7q-KJtLtL6UPlUKzrbPyCSQyIokQVuxTbtGQm9Zpr7tG/s320/DSCF5292.JPG" width="137" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our friend Noah with his candle.</td></tr>
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Today is the Feast of the
Presentation of the Lord—or Candlemas, as it has been known since the Middle
Ages, when people began to bring their candles to the church to be blessed on
this day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wonder if, since candles
were their main source of light, they carted them to the big stone churches in
wagons—all the candles to be used in a year to light the way for household
meals to be made and eaten, games to be played, clothes to be sewn and mended,
and for prayers to be prayed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or maybe,
they brought only a few of their candles, as we do now, to symbolize their
gratefulness for this gift of God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For
the very first words spoken by God in the Book of Genesis, in the darkness of the
unformed Void, are, “Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
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In Fall and Winter the days
become shorter and shorter leading up to winter solstice, until December 21<sup>st</sup>
when the sun seems to be a distracted visitor who shows up late and has to leave
before tea time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Alaska we notice the
change dramatically—though in Southeast we’re lightweights (no pun intended)
compared to the inimitable darkness experienced by those further North.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And though I ’ve suffered through my fair
share of SAD (Seasonal Affective Disorder), I think there is something to learn
from the flux of the seasons—something to gain from being attentive to this
melancholy brought on by the lack of light.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>For we only know the full power of the light in the midst of the most
overwhelming darkness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My family discovered
this on a summer trip to the Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico when I was 10.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Deep within the caves, our guide turned off
all of the artificial lighting (after instructing all parents to grab hold of
their children) and then, after a moment of darkness so black it was hard to
know if you still existed, a single match lit up the cave like a firecracker
and there we all were again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLHWG_JM9dE3a8LxvXcEvaLxG1UUDCRDGsR980CHfQmZPPwZKNU6ZJilROdr56p9YHDY97EUU66Ak_l4UFefPE8hIWtY76-vm0KTo16XyTfuTtqyLY029vAL8r2ucK0nKZk5x0VHoZfn4E/s1600/DSCF5279.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLHWG_JM9dE3a8LxvXcEvaLxG1UUDCRDGsR980CHfQmZPPwZKNU6ZJilROdr56p9YHDY97EUU66Ak_l4UFefPE8hIWtY76-vm0KTo16XyTfuTtqyLY029vAL8r2ucK0nKZk5x0VHoZfn4E/s320/DSCF5279.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ani & Jess helped to light everyone's candles before Mass began.</td></tr>
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The Feast of the Presentation
celebrates the moment when Mary and Joseph brought the baby Jesus to the Temple
to be consecrated to the Lord and for the ritual purification of Mary, 40 days
after giving birth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Upon entering they
were met by Simeon, a man whom we are told is “righteous and devout, awaiting
the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And Simeon saw in this baby born of peasants
“a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and glory for your people Israel”
(Luke 2:32). <o:p></o:p></div>
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Today our family brought our
candles to the church, not a cartload, just the last eight white tapers I could
find at Foodland Super Drug.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This year,
we’ll light them before dinner most nights, even if we’re just having leftovers,
even if I’m cranky or Jackson’s refusing to eat his asparagus, or Jeff’s out of
town, or the girls are stressed out about homework and music practice and
wanting to play outside with their friends.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We’ll light our candles, hold hands
and remember we are on holy ground in the church of our home, where Christ the
Light of the world, dwells in ordinary and extraordinary ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Katy Ricehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13728423830264254831noreply@blogger.com1