Readings 22 March 2024 St Anne's Church
Opening Prayer
Give us this day Give us this day Our daily bread Peace in our hearts Calm in our heads Give us this day Whatever the struggle Peace in our world Whatever the trouble Give us all faith In each other |
Martin Wroe, Julian of Norwich’s Teabag, Poems and prayers from morning to night, Wildgoose
John 1:5 ‘The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it’ As we approach Holy Week let’s spend this time in reverence – acknowledging the darkness coming, but enriched with hope for the rising of Christ from the dead |
Readings
Probing the Darkness
DARKNESS- IS IT JUST THE EMPTY, FRUITLESS TIME between dusk and dawn? The place of ignorance where we have no signs by which to steer our course? The measure of our own lack of enlightenment, our profound need of God?
Do we see it more readily in others than in ourselves? Can we believe that God is also in the darkness with us, alongside us, perhaps especially in the times when we cannot see our own hand in front of our eyes? Can we recognize God as that unfailing presence that, usually, we can see only with the gift of hindsight?
But things grow in the darkness: seeds, bulbs, dreams, babies. Can we trust that if we dare to probe the darkness we may discover things about ourselves that we might prefer not to know, but need to learn? Can we believe that the seeds of all we can become are already gestating in the darkness we would gladly deny? In the East, a new dawn waits just below the horizon.
Silf, Margaret. Compass Points: Meeting God Every Day at Every Turn (pp. 55-56). Loyola Press.
Holy Week
Before we enter our silence I would like to recall my first ever Holy Week in 2019 – which had an incredible impact on me. I will read a few parts of what I wrote at the time.
Up to now Easter has been about weighing up my desire for copious amounts of Easter eggs versus how much weight gain this would involve… Monday’s Stations of the Cross was not a good start for me. The reason? I was focussing on me instead of Christ. Walking around the church and standing at each Station was hard for me with my back and I had to sit down quite a bit. I was totally embroiled with my embarrassment of having to sit down instead of focusing on what I should have – Christ’s journey towards Crucifixion. It was all about ‘me’ instead of being all about ‘Him’.
This ‘all about me’ sentiment stayed with me until Thursday’s Midnight Vigil and the Altar of Repose. Something then changed inside of me. As I sat in silence I was totally immersed in the vision of the Altar of Repose – the beauty, the sadness, the dark, the light, the stillness, the movement... The ‘facts’ then changed to ‘feelings.’ Holy Week and the Crucifixion truly entered my heart.
Then we came to Easter Sunday – oh what joy – He is Risen! An early 6am start with bonfire and lighting of the Paschal Candle. Then there was the point in the service that it was proclaimed that Christ is Risen – and sunlight streamed into the Church! My mood changed from sadness, silence and contemplation to one of joyous celebration. That joy has stayed ever since.
I entered Holy Week with Jesus living in books and stories. I ended Holy Week with Jesus living in my heart and a feeling of deep joy.
Karen G
Introduction to Silence 30 minutes - followed by sharing
Iona Liturgy
We tell your story
We follow in your footsteps
LEAD US INTO HOLY WEEK
We walk towards the city
We wait in the garden
LEAD US ONTO HOLY GROUND
We journey towards death
We hope for resurrection
LEAD US INTO HOLY JOY
R Burgess C Polhill, Eggs and Ashes - Pract & liturgical res. for Lent & Holy Week, Wildgoose
Blessing
So may we know
the hope
that is not just
for someday
but for this day--
here, now,
in this moment
that opens to us:
hope not made
of wishes
but of substance,
hope made of sinew
and muscle
and bone,
hope that has breath
and a beating heart,
hope that will not
keep quiet
and be polite,
hope that knows
how to holler
when it is called for,
hope that knows
how to sing
when there seems
little cause,
hope that raises us
from the dead--
not someday
but this day,
every day,
again and
again and
again.
Jan Richardson, The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief
Thoughts to ponder:
Somewhere, out at the edges, the night
Is turning and the waves of darkness
Begin to brighten the shore of dawn.
The heavy dark falls back to earth
And the freed air goes wild with light,
The heart fills with fresh, bright breath
And thoughts stir to give birth to colour.
O'Donohue, John. Benedictus: A Book Of Blessings (Kindle 319-325). Transworld
From Christine Sine whilst meditating on a river
My life twists and turns
Through the landscapes of this world,
Like a river flowing
Through the curves of time.
Tumbling fast, meandering slow,
Looping back upon itself.
Time lost, time gained
Aware, but not aware
Of what passes by.
Yet as from a mighty tower,
God’s eyes guide.
From a place that is all seeing, all knowing,
God looks down to show the way.
Loving eyes, compassionate eyes,
Often filled with tears of pain,
God’s eyes hold me,
Within the bank of the river’s flow.
(C) Christine Sine
The Other Side of Sorrow
WE ALL HOPE FOR HAPPINESS. MANY WOULD SAY it is their birthright, to be happy. Happiness sometimes lies on the roadside of our lives, easily gathered in parcels of pleasure. But joy is a rarer treasure and often lies only on the other side of sorrow, just as the sweetest fruits often grow on the other side of the thorn hedge. Maybe happiness can even be a barrier in our search for deeper joy—a seductive cul-de-sac that can tempt us to settle for less, when God longs to give us more.
Silf, Margaret. Compass Points: Meeting God Every Day at Every Turn (p. 214). Loyola Press.
Following the Dream
THERE ARE THOSE WHO SAY LIFE IS SIMPLY A VALE OF tears, to be got through with the minimum of pain and effort. There are others who believe in something worth following—something they probably couldn’t really define if they are honest. They would say that, because they feel so strongly the impulse to follow this dream, this is a sign in itself that there is indeed a dream to follow. And then again there are others who know that they don’t really know, but choose in any case to live their lives as though their lives have meaning.
This choice, in itself, actually does give their lives meaning. The sun has risen in the east. The noon hour is near, but not yet. We turn southeast. Will we see the dream rising with the sun, and if we see it, will we follow into the midday hour?
Only if the Dream walks along with us, before and behind us, to our left and our right, and not if we lock the dream away in a golden box on a high pedestal, marked “Keep out of the reach of children.” Maybe children see most clearly the traces of the Dream who is the Way. Maybe that’s why Jesus invites us all to become as little children.
Silf, Margaret. Compass Points: Meeting God Every Day at Every Turn (pp. 79-80). Loyola Press.
For courage
When the light around you lessens
And your thoughts darken until
Your body feels fear turn
Cold as a stone inside,
When you find yourself bereft
Of any belief in yourself
And all you unknowingly
Leaned on has fallen,
When one voice commands
Your whole heart,
And it is raven dark,
Steady yourself and see
That it is your own thinking
That darkens your world,
Search and you will find
A diamond-thought of light
Know that you are not alone
And that this darkness has purpose;
Gradually it will school your eyes
To find the one gift your life requires
Hidden within this night-corner
Invoke the learning
Of every suffering
You have suffered.
Close your eyes.
Gather all the kindling
About your heart
To create one spark.
That is all you need
To nourish the flame
That will cleanse the dark
Of its weight of festered fear.
A new confidence will come alive
To urge you towards higher ground
Where your imagination
Will learn to engage difficulty
As its most rewarding threshold!
O'Donohue, John. Benedictus: A Book Of Blessings (Kindle Locations 1693-1722). Transworld
For Suffering
May you be blessed in the holy names of those
Who, without you knowing it,
Help to carry and lighten your pain.
May you know serenity
When you are called
To enter the house of suffering.
May a window of light always surprise you.
May you be granted the wisdom
To avoid false resistance;
When suffering knocks on the door of your life,
May you glimpse its eventual gifts.
May you be able to receive the fruits of suffering.
May memory bless and protect you
With the hard-earned light of past travail;
To remind you that you have survived before
And though the darkness now is deep,
You will soon see approaching light.
May the grace of time heal your wounds.
May you know that though the storm might rage,
Not a hair of your head will be harmed.
O'Donohue, John. Benedictus: A Book Of Blessings (Kindle Locations 1960-1978). Transworld
Luke 24:13-16 and 30-32 On the Road to Emmaus
Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles[a] from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him….
…. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
Matthew 27:50-54
And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people. When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”
Hoping
When you thought you had lost your path
beneath all your fears
I am there
When meaning is gone
I am that meaning
When truth seems hard to find
I am that truth
When even love seems a bitter thing
I will take that bitter cup from you
and you will taste the wine of my forgiveness
Come back to me
to the centre of the things to be held not torn
Each day is an opportunity for hope
and hope will often arise from those deemed hopeless
Then to hope in God even when hope seems impossible and beyond
Learn to hope in God's grace
even when the rules of the world cry out
that your values have no currency
Learn to hope in God's love
Hope as tender and ephemeral as a new shoot
but which can make the desert bloom
and the songbirds return
The City is my Monastery by Richard Carter
The Eyes of Jesus
I imagine the eyes of Jesus
Were harvest-brown,
The light of their gazing
Suffused with the seasons:
The shadow of winter,
The mind of spring,
The blues of summer,
And amber of harvest.
A gaze that is perfect sister
To the kindness that dwells
In his beautiful hands.
The eyes of Jesus gaze on us,
Stirring in the heart’s clay
The confidence of seasons
That never lose their way to harvest.
This gaze knows the signature
Of our heartbeat, the first glimmer
From the dawn that dreamed our minds,
The crevices where thoughts grow
Long before the longing in the bone
Sends them towards the mind’s eye,
The artistry of the emptiness
That knows to slow the hunger
Of outside things until they weave
Into the twilight side of the heart,
A gaze full of all that is still future
Looking out for us to glimpse
The jewelled light in winter stone,
Quickening the eyes that look at us
To see through to where words
Are blind to say what we would love,
Forever falling softly on our faces,
His gaze plies the soul with light,
Laying down a luminous layer
Beneath our brief and brittle days
Until the appointed dawn comes
Assured and harvest deft
To unravel the last black knot
And we are back home in the house
That we have never left.
O'Donohue, John. Benedictus: A Book Of Blessings (Kindle Locations 3255-3289). Transworld. Kindle
Our next meeting will be 10.30am on Friday 26th April at St Mary’s Church, Market Road, Plympton, PL7 1QW
Probing the Darkness
DARKNESS- IS IT JUST THE EMPTY, FRUITLESS TIME between dusk and dawn? The place of ignorance where we have no signs by which to steer our course? The measure of our own lack of enlightenment, our profound need of God?
Do we see it more readily in others than in ourselves? Can we believe that God is also in the darkness with us, alongside us, perhaps especially in the times when we cannot see our own hand in front of our eyes? Can we recognize God as that unfailing presence that, usually, we can see only with the gift of hindsight?
But things grow in the darkness: seeds, bulbs, dreams, babies. Can we trust that if we dare to probe the darkness we may discover things about ourselves that we might prefer not to know, but need to learn? Can we believe that the seeds of all we can become are already gestating in the darkness we would gladly deny? In the East, a new dawn waits just below the horizon.
Silf, Margaret. Compass Points: Meeting God Every Day at Every Turn (pp. 55-56). Loyola Press.
Holy Week
Before we enter our silence I would like to recall my first ever Holy Week in 2019 – which had an incredible impact on me. I will read a few parts of what I wrote at the time.
Up to now Easter has been about weighing up my desire for copious amounts of Easter eggs versus how much weight gain this would involve… Monday’s Stations of the Cross was not a good start for me. The reason? I was focussing on me instead of Christ. Walking around the church and standing at each Station was hard for me with my back and I had to sit down quite a bit. I was totally embroiled with my embarrassment of having to sit down instead of focusing on what I should have – Christ’s journey towards Crucifixion. It was all about ‘me’ instead of being all about ‘Him’.
This ‘all about me’ sentiment stayed with me until Thursday’s Midnight Vigil and the Altar of Repose. Something then changed inside of me. As I sat in silence I was totally immersed in the vision of the Altar of Repose – the beauty, the sadness, the dark, the light, the stillness, the movement... The ‘facts’ then changed to ‘feelings.’ Holy Week and the Crucifixion truly entered my heart.
Then we came to Easter Sunday – oh what joy – He is Risen! An early 6am start with bonfire and lighting of the Paschal Candle. Then there was the point in the service that it was proclaimed that Christ is Risen – and sunlight streamed into the Church! My mood changed from sadness, silence and contemplation to one of joyous celebration. That joy has stayed ever since.
I entered Holy Week with Jesus living in books and stories. I ended Holy Week with Jesus living in my heart and a feeling of deep joy.
Karen G
Introduction to Silence 30 minutes - followed by sharing
Iona Liturgy
We tell your story
We follow in your footsteps
LEAD US INTO HOLY WEEK
We walk towards the city
We wait in the garden
LEAD US ONTO HOLY GROUND
We journey towards death
We hope for resurrection
LEAD US INTO HOLY JOY
R Burgess C Polhill, Eggs and Ashes - Pract & liturgical res. for Lent & Holy Week, Wildgoose
Blessing
So may we know
the hope
that is not just
for someday
but for this day--
here, now,
in this moment
that opens to us:
hope not made
of wishes
but of substance,
hope made of sinew
and muscle
and bone,
hope that has breath
and a beating heart,
hope that will not
keep quiet
and be polite,
hope that knows
how to holler
when it is called for,
hope that knows
how to sing
when there seems
little cause,
hope that raises us
from the dead--
not someday
but this day,
every day,
again and
again and
again.
Jan Richardson, The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief
Thoughts to ponder:
Somewhere, out at the edges, the night
Is turning and the waves of darkness
Begin to brighten the shore of dawn.
The heavy dark falls back to earth
And the freed air goes wild with light,
The heart fills with fresh, bright breath
And thoughts stir to give birth to colour.
O'Donohue, John. Benedictus: A Book Of Blessings (Kindle 319-325). Transworld
From Christine Sine whilst meditating on a river
My life twists and turns
Through the landscapes of this world,
Like a river flowing
Through the curves of time.
Tumbling fast, meandering slow,
Looping back upon itself.
Time lost, time gained
Aware, but not aware
Of what passes by.
Yet as from a mighty tower,
God’s eyes guide.
From a place that is all seeing, all knowing,
God looks down to show the way.
Loving eyes, compassionate eyes,
Often filled with tears of pain,
God’s eyes hold me,
Within the bank of the river’s flow.
(C) Christine Sine
The Other Side of Sorrow
WE ALL HOPE FOR HAPPINESS. MANY WOULD SAY it is their birthright, to be happy. Happiness sometimes lies on the roadside of our lives, easily gathered in parcels of pleasure. But joy is a rarer treasure and often lies only on the other side of sorrow, just as the sweetest fruits often grow on the other side of the thorn hedge. Maybe happiness can even be a barrier in our search for deeper joy—a seductive cul-de-sac that can tempt us to settle for less, when God longs to give us more.
Silf, Margaret. Compass Points: Meeting God Every Day at Every Turn (p. 214). Loyola Press.
Following the Dream
THERE ARE THOSE WHO SAY LIFE IS SIMPLY A VALE OF tears, to be got through with the minimum of pain and effort. There are others who believe in something worth following—something they probably couldn’t really define if they are honest. They would say that, because they feel so strongly the impulse to follow this dream, this is a sign in itself that there is indeed a dream to follow. And then again there are others who know that they don’t really know, but choose in any case to live their lives as though their lives have meaning.
This choice, in itself, actually does give their lives meaning. The sun has risen in the east. The noon hour is near, but not yet. We turn southeast. Will we see the dream rising with the sun, and if we see it, will we follow into the midday hour?
Only if the Dream walks along with us, before and behind us, to our left and our right, and not if we lock the dream away in a golden box on a high pedestal, marked “Keep out of the reach of children.” Maybe children see most clearly the traces of the Dream who is the Way. Maybe that’s why Jesus invites us all to become as little children.
Silf, Margaret. Compass Points: Meeting God Every Day at Every Turn (pp. 79-80). Loyola Press.
For courage
When the light around you lessens
And your thoughts darken until
Your body feels fear turn
Cold as a stone inside,
When you find yourself bereft
Of any belief in yourself
And all you unknowingly
Leaned on has fallen,
When one voice commands
Your whole heart,
And it is raven dark,
Steady yourself and see
That it is your own thinking
That darkens your world,
Search and you will find
A diamond-thought of light
Know that you are not alone
And that this darkness has purpose;
Gradually it will school your eyes
To find the one gift your life requires
Hidden within this night-corner
Invoke the learning
Of every suffering
You have suffered.
Close your eyes.
Gather all the kindling
About your heart
To create one spark.
That is all you need
To nourish the flame
That will cleanse the dark
Of its weight of festered fear.
A new confidence will come alive
To urge you towards higher ground
Where your imagination
Will learn to engage difficulty
As its most rewarding threshold!
O'Donohue, John. Benedictus: A Book Of Blessings (Kindle Locations 1693-1722). Transworld
For Suffering
May you be blessed in the holy names of those
Who, without you knowing it,
Help to carry and lighten your pain.
May you know serenity
When you are called
To enter the house of suffering.
May a window of light always surprise you.
May you be granted the wisdom
To avoid false resistance;
When suffering knocks on the door of your life,
May you glimpse its eventual gifts.
May you be able to receive the fruits of suffering.
May memory bless and protect you
With the hard-earned light of past travail;
To remind you that you have survived before
And though the darkness now is deep,
You will soon see approaching light.
May the grace of time heal your wounds.
May you know that though the storm might rage,
Not a hair of your head will be harmed.
O'Donohue, John. Benedictus: A Book Of Blessings (Kindle Locations 1960-1978). Transworld
Luke 24:13-16 and 30-32 On the Road to Emmaus
Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles[a] from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him….
…. When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”
Matthew 27:50-54
And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people. When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”
Hoping
When you thought you had lost your path
beneath all your fears
I am there
When meaning is gone
I am that meaning
When truth seems hard to find
I am that truth
When even love seems a bitter thing
I will take that bitter cup from you
and you will taste the wine of my forgiveness
Come back to me
to the centre of the things to be held not torn
Each day is an opportunity for hope
and hope will often arise from those deemed hopeless
Then to hope in God even when hope seems impossible and beyond
Learn to hope in God's grace
even when the rules of the world cry out
that your values have no currency
Learn to hope in God's love
Hope as tender and ephemeral as a new shoot
but which can make the desert bloom
and the songbirds return
The City is my Monastery by Richard Carter
The Eyes of Jesus
I imagine the eyes of Jesus
Were harvest-brown,
The light of their gazing
Suffused with the seasons:
The shadow of winter,
The mind of spring,
The blues of summer,
And amber of harvest.
A gaze that is perfect sister
To the kindness that dwells
In his beautiful hands.
The eyes of Jesus gaze on us,
Stirring in the heart’s clay
The confidence of seasons
That never lose their way to harvest.
This gaze knows the signature
Of our heartbeat, the first glimmer
From the dawn that dreamed our minds,
The crevices where thoughts grow
Long before the longing in the bone
Sends them towards the mind’s eye,
The artistry of the emptiness
That knows to slow the hunger
Of outside things until they weave
Into the twilight side of the heart,
A gaze full of all that is still future
Looking out for us to glimpse
The jewelled light in winter stone,
Quickening the eyes that look at us
To see through to where words
Are blind to say what we would love,
Forever falling softly on our faces,
His gaze plies the soul with light,
Laying down a luminous layer
Beneath our brief and brittle days
Until the appointed dawn comes
Assured and harvest deft
To unravel the last black knot
And we are back home in the house
That we have never left.
O'Donohue, John. Benedictus: A Book Of Blessings (Kindle Locations 3255-3289). Transworld. Kindle
Our next meeting will be 10.30am on Friday 26th April at St Mary’s Church, Market Road, Plympton, PL7 1QW