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February 03, 2010
> 10:20 AM
re-thoughts on prayer and liturgy > 4 Since we are... back in Ordinary Time at the moment - here's another post I wrote in 2008, talking about a liturgical spirituality based in the ordinary. I re-read this just a few minutes ago and I say, it is good. There are, for some perhaps, a couple of radical suggestions toward the end. I'm still 110% with those. Good stuff - regular rhythm of everyday life - love and not fear - Peace to you. -------------------------------------------------- Back to Ordinary (from 01/14/2008)  Back to the brown book, back to Ordinary Time. I'm pretty sure this is my favorite liturgical season. I'm not sure it's considered a "season," per se, but it's my favorite time block on the calendar. Weird, you say? Maybe. I think I just prefer the regular rhythm of everyday life as opposed to the somewhat intense focus on a particular event or Truth in the life of Christ and the Church.I don't mean to say that I don't appreciate the celebration of say, Lent or Advent or Christmas or Easter. I think we need those constant reminders interrupting the rhythm of our lives. Over and over, year after year, to live that in and out, up and down of the calendar is good. I believe that. I wonder, though, if sometimes we don't get a little carried away with the celebrations such that they become things that we wait for during Ordinary Time, just tolerating things until November or February. I've heard some people say they wish we'd back Advent up into October to make it longer. Mmmmmmm, I don't think I'd be in favor of that. If anything, make it shorter. I don't think it's the healthiest thing to live our lives waiting for big, spectacular events. If we can't "feel spiritual" or close to God during the ordinary part of the year, we have some problems. And nobody's asking for my vote, but strip out all the "obligation" attached to any of these feast days, and to any fasting or abstinence attached to them. That is not to say there shouldn't be an encouragement to do certain things or to gather with the whole Church to worship at certain times. Certainly there should be, but attaching an ultimate penalty to these things is counter-productive to real spiritual development. Yes, I really do think so. Would you rather your children obey your rules out of love and respect or from fear of being punished - and not just punished but kicked out of the freakin' house? I hope our answer would be, love. And fear does not produce love. I don't think so. Anyway, we should all develop a rhythm to our spiritual lives that is solidly entrenched in Ordinary Time. The special seasons should be pleasant interruptions in an already solid rhythm of life focused on our Life in Christ. Christmas is wonderful, and waiting for it in Advent is great, but the now is that Christ is alive, as God and Man, and living in us. Easter is amazing and the relative darkness of Lent is a helpful thing, but now, He lives forever in eternity and is constantly inviting us into His present Life. Let's do what we can to constantly be hearing that invitation and saying yes to it. Labels: church year, liturgy, re-post 5 comments
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permalink | e-mail me | January 29, 2010 > 10:31 PM re-thoughts on prayer and liturgy > 3 Here's some stuff I used in my recent retreat talks as well. This is a sort of fleshed-out outline of a homily I taught/preached at the Easter Vigil of 2007 - done in cooperation between the faith community I used to lead and our friends, St. Patrick's Anglican church here in Lexington. I both sung the Exultet and preached the homily - yes I did. :) I took a bit of a perhaps unusual tack by not talking particularly about Easter, but about the liturgy of the Church in general, how it forms us, living in the rhythm of it, etc. So, even though it's not even Lent yet, much less Easter, it fits. Have at it... ----------------------------------- Vigil Homily (from 04/14/2007) I said a bit back that I might put up the outline (most of it actually) of the homily I gave at our Easter Vigil celebration. And so here I am doin' it..
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permalink | e-mail me | January 28, 2010 > 1:39 PM re-thoughts on prayer and liturgy > 2 Here's a double-whammy for you. Two posts, one short, one longer, on liturgy itself. This is also something I talked about with the UM Pastors in the UP last week. These things are important, I think. Many who came through the emerging church era, and many who don't even know what that is/was, have come to see how helpful these things are for the Church. Oh - one more general thing: If you didn't know already, Haloscan comments are going the way of the dinosaur in a few weeks. So, I've exported and saved all my old comments (there were around 7,500 of them - wow) and gone to Blogger comments because it's easy and free. ------------------------------------------ Liturgy (from 08/24/2006) The skeleton of a faith community's worship and prayer life. It is the spiritual life's work we do as a community, together, with and in Christ. Should we have one, a skeleton that is? Yes. The question certainly should be asked, but if somehow we come to the answer "no" I'm pretty sure we fell off a cliff somewhere. Should they all be the same in every church? Yeah, hmmm, yes and no. That's right - to a degree, yes, all skeletons in all bodies are the same. You have a humerus, I have a humerus. I have a rib-cage and so do you. If you didn't have a rib-cage, that would not be good. It would mean either something bad happened in your genetic formation or you were in a bad accident - something, but it wouldn't be right. I believe there is a certain core of liturgical worship and prayer that is, let's put it this way, a healthier skeleton to have in your body. It's the one we've basically always had - well, until about 500 years ago. It's way too rigid in some parts of the Church (and non-existent in others = jelly body). There are places that it ends up choking people instead of guiding them or helping them worship and stand in the flow of God's Grace in the community. Choking isn't good. You can die from that. A rigid skeleton will break too easily. So, yes, there is a core that should exist in all places, times, cultures. But no, the exact expression and fleshing out of that skeleton is not, and probably should not, look the same everywhere. People go too far on both ends of this liturgical spectrum. Can we try, please, not to do that? ---------------- The Longhaul Life of The Community (from 03/19/2007)   That's the title of a little break-out session I lead at the thinspace gathering this weekend. It was a good conversation I think. Some of these things are pieces of things I've said in the past, some of it is new. I thought it might be helpful to put it up here as I put it together for the session.But isn't liturgy dead, dry religion? Isn't that what many of us left a long time ago in favor of something more "spirit-lead" and "organic?" Well, I don't know, is it? I think some people think that. I think there are many people who don't really understand what liturgy is or what its purpose is. I'm sure of that. What also seems clear is that there are many in this so-called "emerging church" phenomenon who, after leaving this or that for whatever reasons, are beginning to rediscover liturgy as something good - liturgical prayer, worship, etc. The concept of organic church What about that word - organic? Let's think about that for a minute. Think about the natural world, organic life - how does that work anyway? It's certainly not formless or chaotic. Organic life has rhythm. It's not accidental. It's not wherever, whenever, whatever. That's not organic. I think liturgy is organic. It is a rhythm of activity focused on God, on God in the community of His People the Church. It moves in seasons - like breathing, leaves falling, buds sprouting, freezing and thawing, mating and giving birth, etc. Liturgy as skeleton Think about the human body. Liturgy gives us a skeletal structure to stand with, and it's not just some new made-up thing that hasn't been tested. It is tried and tested and still standing. It has helped in this way since the beginning. It is an ancient Oak. This, I think, is what we're catching hold of. Our eyes are open. Our noses are alert. We see and smell something that will give us what we do not have. A liturgical lifestyle As we re-examine the mode of our active Christian lives, we are discovering, it seems, the real value of a liturgical lifestyle, not only the trappings of liturgical worship. We are finding, once again, the real spiritual formation that happens in the context of close Christian community, and we are finding ways of living that out in the midst of "real life." The monastic life is not merely a life of quiet and solitude, although there are elements of that within it. It is a liturgical lifestyle - a life of "spiritual work" that is done by a community together. We are coming to see "discipleship" as less of an individual "me & Jesus" deal, and more as something that happens in the context of community - a community of those traveling this common journey together, for a long time. And this liturgical lifestyle is being rediscovered as something legitimately formational. So, this is what I mean by the longhaul life of the community. We cannot live as communities of faith who are dependent on the newest, coolest thing that comes down the pike. We can't sustain a transformative life together by merely "hanging out" - doing whatever, whenever, wherever. It has no skeleton. It eventually falls to the ground. Liturgy (and at least to some significant degree I mean the liturgy that is old, which has been lived in since the Church began) is our stable skeletal structure. It is a compass. It acts as a rudder in a vast, open ecclesiastical ocean. It is a pattern of one step after another, together, toward a common goal. It will get boring. It will seem repetitive and sometimes dry to many. And it will form you, straighten your crooked limbs. It will act, spiritually, like physical therapy does for the body. Longhaul. Steady. 2 comments
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permalink | e-mail me | January 26, 2010 > 10:39 AM re-thoughts on prayer and liturgy > 1 Too long since I've blogged, so I think I'll start back with some re-posts - oldies but goodies. Some of these posts not so old, but something perhaps worth putting out there again. I recently took a trip to Negaunee, Michigan (that's waaaay up there folks, in the UP) to lead United Methodist District Pastors retreat for a friend of mine, Eric Kieb, at his church there (he is Pastor of Mitchell UMC in Negaunee). It was a good time. It was definitely a gift for me to be able to do that kind of thing. I talked about liturgy, the liturgical lifestyle, liturgical prayer, etc. It flowed somewhat into the mystical life, union with God and cool stuff like that. Very good conversations. I'm going back through my blog posts to find some of this kind of material. I'm sure some of it will be identical to what I talked about up there. Hopefully, some of it will be helpful in some way to someone. I'll start with this post entitled "prayer," originally posted April 29, 2008. ----------------------------- prayer "Prayer enlarges the heart until it is capable of containing the gift that God makes of Himself."Can't say it much better than that. I read that last night and thought it was well worthy of sharing here. It makes me think a couple of things: that prayer is a medium. It's something we do because we are in the state that we're in. This may sound odd, but I'm not sure God created us to have to pray. He created us to have such a close and intimate and undivided union with Him that prayer, as we know it, is not necessary. Yes, I know Jesus prayed, but He had also stepped into our broken realm. Our goal - well, God's goal for us is Mystical Union with Himself, nothing less. Praying is necessary and good and we need to do it now. Even what we call the Saints "praying" in heaven to God for us, wouldn't be quite the same as what we're doing here from one dimension to another. To see them, "there" in the fullness of His Presence, having to kneel down and lift there hands or put their hands together in order to ask God to help us - well, it's odd and a very, very limited way of looking at what that Life is like. Another thing is that prayer is not just some isolated "thing" we do here and there: pray to ask for help or for things; pray to get forgiveness; pray so that we don't have a car accident; stop and pray so that your sister won't go to hell, etc., etc. Prayer is more than that. It may include things like that from time to time, sure, but it's not just that. It is the opening of ourselves to God. This is why we are told to pray without ceasing. There are many different ways to pray. This should be obvious. So somehow, always, wherever we are or whatever we're doing, we can be "at prayer" in some way, even if it's just saying to ourselves that we are open to God, we are listening. Our mind can chew on things - we can meditate even without candles and music and silence. Sure, there are particular ways to pray and we should be doing those things, praying in those ways. But we need to come to realize that prayer is sort of a way of being, a constant attitude, both inward and outward. And as we open ourselves, God is there to "come in" and do the work that only He can do. 3 comments
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permalink | e-mail me | January 08, 2010 > 10:50 AM though the yield of the olive fail For though the fig tree blossom notThese two bits from Morning Prayer sort of shined through to me as I prayed them. They are kind of "light in the darkness" sections. This happens to me often, even when I've allowed my habit to break of praying the Office for a bit - I step back in and God is waiting there for me. He always knows where I am, where my mind and heart are open, where they are closed. Even then, He holds the keys to every door. We know this - He is faithful even when we are unfaithful. If this were not true, even what hope we had would be in vain. But it is not in vain. Often, I believe, we think of "those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death" as "someone else." Those poor people. Really, it's all of us, to one degree or another. Progressively, hopefully, we are being shown and we see more of His Light. He shines in our darkness and we are transformed, healed, made whole. And His Peace awaits us - and I'm not talking about "heaven" here - rather, the Peace of God which can and will fill and take hold of us right now. The fullness of God's Life is not for the sweet by and by. It may end up there, but that fullness is His will for us now, that our lives would be transformed now - not for a special few, but for all of us. May the tender compassion of our God continue to shine on our darkness. Labels: liturgical prayer, spiritual formation 0 comments
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permalink | e-mail me | December 31, 2009 > 10:09 PM thoughts on 2009 I thought since I haven't blogged much in the last little bit, I'd use this New Year's Eve opportunity to do a little retrospective of the last year, if I can remember enough to do it. I tend to be the introspective, fairly transparent type, so steer away if you don't want to wade through a little bit of it. Let's see.....
I do pray for God to give me Wisdom in this new year - for Grace and Strength - for Him to heal my insides and help me to Love as I was created to Love - for guidance and direction. I'll try to listen. Amen. Labels: personal, random thoughts 0 comments
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permalink | e-mail me | December 26, 2009 > 6:23 PM Christmas is still here A continued Merry Christmas to everyone! Christmas is still here. Don't take your decorations down yet! I know we've had them up for a while, but the actual Christmas season just began yesterday. I don't really have a lot to say about that at the moment. Just wanted to update the blog and say Merry Christmas. Perhaps I'll try to blog more regularly in the new year - we'll see. Labels: christmas 0 comments
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