For a good Good Friday 2012

This Sunday, I'm thinking about Friday. Last year, I recommended as much silence as possible for Good Friday. It's still a good plan to have a quiet day (we have a no computers/TV rule), but this year, I'd like to invite you to participate in my favourite Good Friday reflections.

Invitation #1: At 10 a.m., you're invited to gather with a good-sized crowd, rain or shine, outside of Hope Mission (9908-106 Avenue) to participate in the 32nd Annual Outdoor Way of the Cross. It's an ecumenical prayer event commemorating the suffering and death of Jesus, that offers time to notice how the gospel values of Jesus are important to individual and social life today (I'm plagiarizing from the advertizing and throwing in my own comments as well, but I suspect this is a case where the organizers won't mind being plagiarized). People of all faith traditions are warmly welcome. The walk begins and ends at the same location, and participants are advised to dress for the weather (I'll add a few exclamation marks to that last statement)!!! It's not a strenuous walk, as our L'Arche Edmonton community, including those in wheelchairs, participate every year -- the picture above shows one of my L'Arche friends closest to the camera. This year, we're particularly excited because we get to present Station 5, which focuses on Homelessness. I'm looking forward to participating in the music group, too.

The full walk takes about two hours, and there is fellowship with refreshments after the final station. Donations of non-perishable food and toiletry items are welcomed. As much as I appreciate church services on Good Friday, I appreciate this even more, because there's something really powerful about walking in the inner city in solidarity with the brothers and sisters there, reflecting on what we are called to  as Christians, and re-enacting Christ's walk to Calvary. Many of our inner-city brothers and sisters join us as we reflect on Christ's words in the 25th chapter of Matthew's Gospel, bringing his words to life:

" Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you? Or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?"

And the King will answer them, "Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of my brothers and sisters, you did it to me." 

Invitation #2: You're invited to Good Friday Taizé Prayer Around the Cross, at 7:30 p.m. at Providence Renewal Centre (3005-119 Street). It's a beautiful hour of meditative scripture-based song that centers on a simple wooden cross.

If you're in the neighbourhood, please come to either or both of these events. The reason I love them so much is because they gather Christians from every denomination together to remember what is common to us all... Jesus, who set us free by leading us to new life! Laudate omnes gentes, laudate Dominum! Sing praises, all you peoples, sing praises to the Lord!

If you're nowhere near Edmonton, I'd love to hear about your own meaningful ways to mark Good Friday wherever you are.

Have a blessed Holy Week.

Simple Suggestion #84... Engage in justice issues

Our world has no shortage of injustice, so it's not hard to find a cause in which to engage, or an organization that needs support in its efforts to right wrongs in our communities, countries, or world. Plug the word injustice into a search engine, and you may end up with 40 million hits, but don't let that fool you. People are willing to claim almost anything as injustice, from the unfair wages of a football pro to the cost of a manicure.

But let's get real. True injustice exists where living beings are denied their rights to food, water, appropriate living space and the ability to meet their basic needs -- and this where involvement and intervention are essential from those who have the ability to make a difference. If we are to ensure the basics of life for all, unfairness, discrimination, prejudice, bias and wrongdoing can't be a part of what we do. A world of fairness, equality, equity and goodness isn't an unattainable Utopia if we do more than talk about those ideals -- if we do our best to bring them into existence everywhere we go. We are all called to act justly, love tenderly, and walk humbly with God and creation.

The problem is that so many of our world's injustices seem too big and black to handle -- that we'll never be able to do more than light our one tiny candle. But one candle is still a candle, and it can light many others if we're willing to share the flame in our hearts, our desire that things be right.

So here's a little list of candles anyone can light. If you have any to add, I'd be happy to lengthen the list. And if we all hold our little lights high, eventually, the world won't be quite so dark.

• Help Amnesty International to rescue a human rights activist from incarceration or torture
• Join the World Wildlife Fund, Ducks Unlimited, or other animal welfare agencies to see where help is needed
• Write a letter to a newspaper editor about a local justice issue that needs to be addressed, or organize a meeting of interested stakeholders
• Get involved in reforestation projects
• Mentor a local child who needs some adult attention, or sponsor one in the developing world through an organization like Plan Canada

And there are dozens, if not hundreds, of other possibilities. I found a really neat website that has many suggestions for activities that take 15 minutes, a few hours, or a few days' effort. I'm not sure how up-to-date it is or where it originates, but it gave me lots of food for thought by reminding me of local opportunities to be an activist in my own small ways.

And I'd like to suggest that getting our children involved in justice issues at an early age sets them on the path toward being compassionate and well-rounded adults. It will also mean that our world will be a brighter place, and that's definitely worth our engagement.

P.S. Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Try here.

Ten years ago...

... my husband woke me to kiss me goodbye, and mentioned that a plane had just hit the World Trade Towers in New York. I immediately thought Cessna and got up to make coffee. As we said our morning prayers at the back door, the second plane hit. When I turned on the radio five minutes later, it became clear that the planes were not Cessnas and I wondered what kind of world our children would inherit.

We walked my daughter to school, then I took my two kindergarteners (I looked after a friend's son at the time) and toddler to the local IGA for a few groceries. As we walked in the door, I saw people standing stock still in the aisles, listening to radio news blaring from the PA system, announcing that the first tower had just fallen. A thousand questions from the kindergarteners. We walked home with our groceries, I set the kids up with a game, and went to the basement to turn on the TV...

Two days later as I was reading a library book to my youngest about "what love is," I burst into tears. Jay went to get me some tissues, too little to understand why Mommy was crying.

Ten years and two wars later, what can we do but work for the equality that doesn't breed terrorism and pray for peace? I still love St. Francis' prayer the best:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.

Where there is hatred, let me sow love.

Where there is injury, pardon.

Where there is doubt, faith.

Where there is despair, hope.

Where there is darkness, light.

Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive.

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

Amen.

Live right now

The national public radio station I wake up to every morning is on a health kick this year. It and its affiliated TV station have a "Live Right Now" program running, with webspace broadcasting healthy ideas for Canadians (this week's is "Stretch it out") and a reality TV show called "Village on a Diet," in which the villagers of Taylor, British Columbia have pledged to collectively lose a ton of weight in an effort to be fitter.

Good for them, I say. Nothing like getting our bodies in good physical shape. But what about our lives?

Today was my day at St. Vincent de Paul's clothing room. As I unpacked bag after bag of donated items, I was thinking about what it would take for society to be in excellent spiritual health. And when I got home and started looking through my email, I came across a column written by my friend/cousin Ron. It really resonates with my moodlings about spiritual fitness:

http://www.ronrolheiser.com/columnarchive/?id=618

If we really want to live right now, and not just physically, it would seem that we need to put aside preoccupation with wealth, competition and things that do violence to our relationships with each other and the planet, and focus on caring for widows, orphans and strangers, work for "the survival of the weakest," and spend our lives being "justice with love."

Physical fitness without spiritual health is pointless, as our bodies aren't the eternal part of us. And like Cardinal Sin says, justice without love is baloney, after all.

God speaks...

Today is the longest, darkest day of the year in the northern part of the world, winter at its height. Where I live, we receive only 7 hours and 28 minutes of daylight. The good news is that from this afternoon on, our daylight begins to lengthen again.
What's really interesting to me is that today the Christian lectionary (the scripture readings chosen for each day of the year) has the following as the Old Testament Reading:

The voice of my beloved!
   Look, he comes,
leaping upon the mountains,
   bounding over the hills. My beloved is like a gazelle
   or a young stag.
Look, there he stands
   behind our wall,
gazing in at the windows,
   looking through the lattice. My beloved speaks and says to me:
'Arise, my love, my fair one,
   and come away: for now the winter is past,
   The rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth;
   the time of singing has come,
and the voice of the turtle-dove
   is heard in our land. The fig tree puts forth its figs,
   and the vines are in blossom;
   they give forth fragrance.
Arise, my love, my fair one,
   and come away. O my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
   in the covert of the cliff,
let me see your face,
   let me hear your voice;
for your voice is sweet,
   and your face is lovely.'


                -- Song of Songs 2. 8-14 (NRSV)

These are probably my favourite verses in the entire bible. The first time I came across them, I felt like I was living in the deepest darkness. But here was God speaking to me like a lover; telling me things were going to improve; that light was returning; that spring was coming again. God called me "my love." That really blew me away!

These days, Christianity has a lot of detractors (many of them making pretty good points about how a lot of Christians have lost Jesus' vision to bring good news to the poor, free captives, heal the sick, reach out to the marginalized, etc.) Personally, I think that if more people understood themselves and everyone else to be loved by the God represented in the passage above rather than by a judgmental God, we would make more efforts to care for the forgotten members of society and make Jesus' vision a reality. Acting justly, loving tenderly and walking humbly with God would not be an issue!

If you have a few minutes today, let God call you "my love." See if it doesn't make the depths of winter darkness seem a little less harsh. Here's a link to a little website called Pray As You Go, and if you click on December 21, it will give you today's 12 minute reflection on the reading above.

http://www.pray-as-you-go.org/

Happy Winter Solstice! 

One of my favourite seasons

Today is the first Sunday of Advent. On the Christian calendar, New Year's Day. I've always loved the season of Advent because it contains so many words of hope. During the darkest days in our northern regions, hope is essential. It warms the chill, mellows anxiety, promises peace... but only if we beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks. Advent is a time to listen to the prophets of the past (and present)... and to ACT justly, LOVE tenderly and WALK humbly (Micah 6:8) with God and everything in God's creation. That is the way of hope, desperately needed in a world of people who have been convinced that they can buy happiness if only they find the right store.

So how will we act justly, love tenderly, and walk humbly this new year? Again, if we listen, we hear it clearly and simply in the words of a prophet called Isaiah:

If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
   with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
   and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
   and your night will become like the noonday (58:9b-10).

Finding ways to beat swords into ploughshares, do away with oppression and malice, and spend ourselves for the hungry and marginalized sounds like a darn good new year's resolution to me...