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Each Wednesday, Tim Carson shares
the wonderings of heart and mind and the inspirations and quandaries of the spirit. You are invited to wonder along with him through the telling of stories, reflections on faith and observations on the events that shape our lives.
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Wednesday Wonder
March 21, 2018
Holy Week begins this coming Palm Sunday, March 25!
I have received this collection of Holy Week day-by-day meditations from Dr. Terry Ewing, Brite Divinity School, and hope you will place it close at hand for your own meditative time.
Growing into an Easter Morning
Words for these Days
Holy Week, 2018
As you prepare for Holy Week and Easter this year let me offer a word, a word for each of these days. Place the word for the day before you. Keep it in your thoughts. I have offered some of my thoughts related to the word of the day. Write down your thoughts. Return to it as you sit resting, or waiting, or involved in an activity. Let this word become a companion. Repeat the blessing as a guide for your day. Allow these words to grow into a new meaning. And as they grow, may you grow into an Easter Morning that is fresh and new.
Palm Sunday, March 25
Beginning
It is easy to believe the story is over, that there is nothing and nowhere else to go, that each day is swallowed by night, the chorus of fears, misgivings and doubts echo in my head and their voices are loud, more than any other, more than my own. Begin again. No turning away. Only turning towards the open gates, open for this One, open for me. The arrival of the Promise, this One, who has come. It is a week of Alleluia-Beginnings!
Most Loving God, may my head, my heart and my life greet the One who comes.
Monday, March 26
Receive
When did I become so dried out and stiff? When did I close my eyes, not seeing? When did I fill my ears with sounds of regret and despair? When did refusal become my habit and denial my closest companion? Here is my chance. Here once more, I can open my arms, open myself to receive what is beautiful, complete, loving and holy. Never too old or too young. Once more, I have a chance.
God of Mercy, may I receive the Gift and the new life coming before me now.
Tuesday, March 27
Follow
Life experience can be a gift, even an advantage. It can also throw a global-size wet blanket on anything burning with a new fire and a new direction. "I've been around", I say. "I've seen this before", I say. Within my drowning heart, I wish, I long, even yearn for my spirit to sit in the pilot's seat once more and to leap toward the skies! Here, now this One passes by on Mercy's March. I can do nothing, again. Or . . . I can follow.
Gentle Lord, may my aching spirit guide my feet to walk on this path, free to follow.
Wednesday, March 28
Broken
Though I may pretend this week is like each other week, I know this week is sacred. I know this because the air is filled with the blooms of glory, the fragrance of forgiveness and all shades of compassion. I know this week is sacred because I try so very hard to look away from it, to see it as happening somewhere else, to someone else. What is broken finds it difficult to see what is whole. It is a world, its own world, in which nothing touches and nothing is touched. Now a hand reaches out, to touch. Something complete and whole. Something sacred.
Holy Companion, may I see another way that brings all the scattered pieces together, again.
Maundy Thursday, March 29
Darkness
These things draw me into the corners of each day: terrorism, global war, increasing poverty, identity theft, aging, loss of friends and family, the anger epidemic, the demise of respect and where all of this ends. These things hang upon my day. These things wait in the back frightening and real. What is faith in a place so dark? Where can it be found? When will Good News be revealed? My faith calls upon me to search and in the searching my faith steps forward. My faith says Love will find a way. My faith lights the candle one more time that burns, without fear, in my world and in my life.
Most Loving God, may the darkness fade, may my heart beat with new hope and may Love walk among us again.
Good Friday, March 30
Good News
Just one word, or a sight I have never noticed, or even the warming light of the sun can change a day. In a moment, what seemed without life, without joy, or a dark obstacle before me, or even the sly trickster of doubt whispering in my head-all these are changed-Gone! So, it can be different. I am not strapped with regret or chained to past mistakes. Looking up, I see the face of Love. Looking up, I see it can be different. Looking up, I see Good News.
Dear God, may I see the beaming light of Love that changes each day. May I embrace your Good News.
Saturday, March 31
Silence
Listen. Hold your breath. Listen. There is a silence of great dread and anxious arrival. There is a silence that scares us and we seek to fill it with any sound. Yet, there is a silence surrounding what cannot be explained. There is a silence of frozen anticipation. A silence rising inside. A silence opening what is closed. A silence bearing hints of knowledge. A silence slowly taking form. A silence causing heads to bow, still and reverent, waiting for what must be sacred, even holy-it must be sacred! We wait in silence. Here we wait, between the day of stark Good News and the day of Sacred New Creation. Frozen anticipation.
Holy God, may I sit in the silence of my life's sanctuary, my heart filled with hope. May I be faithful now.
Easter Sunday, April 1
Rise
This day has come. New again, once more new. Repeated often in my life but now, this year, it comes as I have never know before. This day has come! There is one word, one hope, upon my lips. One word formed by the One who recreates Life, opens Life, fills each day of living with His life. One word, the only word I can speak on this day. One word in a magnificent embrace swooping upon my life: Rise! No longer held down by the old stories. No longer tied up in knots of regret. No longer robbing myself of joy and happiness by looking back to dirty old days. No longer nailed to my greatest pain or humbling loss. Rise! I can turn my face to what brims with light! I can pick up myself, again and again! I can leave it all behind as I enter this day. Rise! I can be who I was always intended to be. I can find Life, hold it close, my dear Life. Rise!
Gracious God, may I know your Peace, your loving Restoration, and your Unconditional Love. May I rise, new. This is my prayer, in the name of the One who found us all, on this day. Alleluia Amen!
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Click here to go to Tim Carson's blog, VitalWholeness http://vitalwholeness.wordpress.com/ |
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