Right now are the waning days of pregnancy. Contractions come and go. Intense, then subsiding. I can't walk without waddling. Sleep is fitful, restless. Comfort is elusive. I wake a hundred times. Every morning the kids ask if the baby will be born today. No one knows. These are my last days to carry. To be a vessel. Soon I will become the passage. . . . Each time the priest lifts high the cup and plate, intoning the thundering prayer I've heard for decades, I try to understand. What does it mean for God to be held in human hands? To offer us a way to become holy? Eucharist is vessel and passage. Jesus said I am the Cup of Life and I am the Way, and people were so startled by his strange words that they remembered them, recited them under breath a thousand times, wrote them down and passed them on, pressed them into the hands of others saying, see? It is all here. If you can try to understand. If you can believe. What I believe is this. We gather … [Read more...] about to be vessel and passage
Sacraments
an Advent book club: week 4 {preparing}
A voice cries out:‘In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low;the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’ (Isaiah 40:3-5) This week we're reading in Everyday Sacrament: This is My Body, Given For You A Litany of the Dirty Work The Focal Point . . . Preparing. Less than one week till Christmas. We all feel it, the snowballing rush toward the end, the express-shipping last-minute purchases, the packages piling by the door, the cards spilling out of the mailbox, the hundred to-dos scribbled onto the already long list. It's go time. A dear friend of mine is preparing for the birth of her baby, any day now. The final weeks of pregnancy are a time zone unto themselves, a planet of preparation … [Read more...] about an Advent book club: week 4 {preparing}
an Advent book club: week 3 {waiting}
"Be patient, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. You too must be patient. Make your hearts firm, because the coming of the Lord is at hand." (James 5:7-8) This week we're reading in Everyday Sacrament: "A Strong Hand on the Shoulder" (psst: if you haven't yet gotten your copy of the book, you can read this chapter here) "Chrysalis in the Communion Line" "The Gift of the Pilgrimage" . . . Waiting. Already/not yet lies at the heart of Advent. We know (or we think we know) what we are anticipating, Whom is to come. And yet we must fill the in-between with living, as time holds at arm's length what we cannot yet grasp. For years I've kept these words of Caryll Houselander on my desk in winter. She's one of my unofficial patron saints - an everyday mystic, a woman who saw with clear eyes. Her words on waiting are rich and … [Read more...] about an Advent book club: week 3 {waiting}
an Advent book club: week one {hoping}
"...and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us." (Romans 5:5) This week we're reading these chapters about hope in Everyday Sacrament: "Parenting Toward Possibility" "The Spirit's Flashes" "To My Children, Called in Childhood" (psst: if you haven't yet gotten your copy of the book, you can read this chapter here) We hear a lot about hope during Advent. It's a season of anticipation. Eager hearts looking toward Christmas. Prayers of peace, hymns of encouragement. Waiting in joyful hope becomes our refrain. Especially on the brink of December, when we're not yet tired of snow or stressed by shopping, it's easy to hum along with hope. But hope is a hard thing, isn't it? This week's chapters speak to different sides of hope. The audacious prospect of bringing a child into the world (and into the church). The comforting presence of God in daily moments of despair (or … [Read more...] about an Advent book club: week one {hoping}
