Holy Saturday & Patient Trust

This morning I began my Holy Saturday by reading the below reflection from Fr. James Martin, SJ., posted on his Facebook page. I thought it was timely and appropriate for my year of Patient Trust. A reminder that patient trust is also active waiting in hope!

Most of our lives are spent in Holy Saturday. In other words, most of our days are not filled with the unbearable pain of a Good Friday. Nor are they suffused with the unbelievable joy of an Easter. Some days are indeed times of great pain and some are of great joy, but most are…in between. Most are, in fact, times of waiting, much as the disciples waited during Holy Saturday. We’re waiting. Waiting to get into a good school. Waiting to meet the right person. Waiting to get pregnant. Waiting to get a job. Waiting for things at work to improve. Waiting for diagnosis from the doctor. Waiting for life just to get better. 

But there are different kinds of waiting. There is the wait of despair. Here we know--at least we think we know--that things could never get better, that God could never do anything with our situations. This may be the kind of waiting that forced the fearful disciples to hide behind closed doors on Holy Saturday, cowering in terror. Of course they could be forgiven; after Jesus was executed they were in danger of being rounded up and executed by the Roman authorities. (Something tells me, though, that the women disciples, who overall proved themselves better friends than the men during the Passion, were more hopeful.) Then there is the wait of passivity, as if everything were up to “fate.” In this waiting there is no despair, but not much anticipation of anything good either. 

Finally, there is wait of the Christian, which is called hope. It is an active waiting; it knows that, even in the worst of situations, even in the darkest times, God is at work. Even if we can’t see it clearly right now. The disciples’ fear was understandable, but we, who know how the story turned out, who know that Jesus will rise from the dead, who know that God is with us, who know that nothing will be impossible for God, are called to wait in faithful hope. And to look carefully for signs of the new life that are always right around the corner--just like they were on Holy Saturday.
~ From Fr. James Martin, SJ

Eastertide Prayer of Praise & Easter Virtues

Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In His great mercy
He has given us a new birth
to a living hope through the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead
and to an inheritance
that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading.
It is reserved in heaven for you,
who because of your faith in God
are being protected by His power
until the salvation
that is ready to be revealed at the end of time.
(Adapted from 1 Peter 1:3-5)

Lord,the resurrection of Your Son
has given us new life and renewed hope.
Help us to live as new people
in pursuit of the Christian ideal.
Grant us wisdom to know what we must do,
the will to want to do it,
the courage to undertake it,
the perseverance to continue to do it,
and the strength to complete it.

Taken from New Saint Joseph People's Prayer Book

another saturday...

Has it really been two weeks since my last blog post? The weeks continue to zoom by. I have been fighting some kind of cold/bug these past couple of weeks, as well as a stomach bug last weekend. Prayerfully, I will begin this week ahead healthy with more energy!

This past week I found an apartment that seems ideal! It is a great one-bedroom place in La Boca, the same neighborhood where the Forcattos and Deans live. I will be within walking distance from them. (Right now, I allow 30-minutes by bus.) The paperwork and approval process has begun and will probably take a week or two. Pray that all goes smoothly! This apartment will be hard to beat! Now the fun (stress) begins in furnishing it with essentials….mattress, futon, fridge, stove/oven, kitchen supplies, and a space heater (for the winter cold ahead). Plus, a lot of other odds and ends I know I will need! Thankfully, furniture stores deliver here.

Tomorrow is Penetcost Sunday, when we celebrate the outpouring of the Holy Spirit after Jesus’ ascension to heaven. Once again, N.T. Wright has some good words from his book Simply Christian: Why Christianity Makes Sense. I will close this brief update with a few quotes…I’m off to shop for my new pad!

“The Holy Spirit and the task of the church. The two walk together, hand and hand. We can’t talk about them apart….But the point of the Spirit is to enable those who follow Jesus to take into all the world the news that he is Lord, that he has won the victory over the forces of evil, that a new world has opened up, that we are to make it happen.”

“The wind, fire, and the brooding bird are given to enable the church to be the church – in other words, to enable God’s people to be God’s people. This has a surprising and dramatic effect. The Spirit is given so that we ordinary mortals can become, in a measure, what Jesus himself was: part of God’s future arriving in the present; a place where heaven and earth meet; the means of God’s kingdom going ahead. The Spirit is given, in fact, so that the church can share in the life and continuing work of Jesus himself, now that he had gone into God’s dimension – that is heaven.”

“The Spirit is given to begin the work of making God’s future real in the present.”

Prayer for Eastertide....Third Sunday of Easter

This prayer is adapted from The Book of Common Prayer for Resurrection Sunday. I think it is a good one to take hold of throughout the Eastertide season…

An Easter Prayer (Adapted from The Book of Common Prayer)
O God, who for our redemption gave your only begotten Son to death on the Cross, and by his glorious resurrection has delivered us from the power of our enemy: Grant that we who celebrate with joy the day of our Lord’s resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by your life-giving Spirit. Grant us so to die daily to sin, that we may evermore live with him in the joy of his resurrection, empowered and transformed by your grace in and among us.

O Lord, so stir up in your church, indeed in each of us, that Spirit of adoption and reconciliation that is made possible by your grace revealed in Jesus the Christ, that we being renewed in both body and mind, may worship and serve you in sincerity and truth. We pray this in the name of the same Jesus Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Eastertide...Living the Resurrection!

The season of Eastertide lasts fifty days from Easter Sunday until Pentecost Sunday, which falls on May 11 this year. I wonder why the church does not seem to put as much emphasis on this season as Advent or Lent? Maybe we have “church calendar’itis” from the intentionality of making space for Advent and Lent? I’m not sure? But, I do find myself yearning for more celebration and reflection in the resurrection and new life! As joyous as Easter Sunday is, one day just doesn’t seem adequate to celebrate, rejoice, and make space to live the resurrection more fully! Of course, we need to live the resurrection all year long, but Eastertide can be a meaningful season to do that more deeply. I also think we “shortchange” Pentecost and the arrival of the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, Jesus promises to his disciples and us.

This quote from N.T. Wright continues to resonate with me this Easter season:
“So how can we learn to live as wide-awake people, as Easter people?… In particular if Lent is a time to give things up, Easter ought to be a time to take things up…. If Calvary means putting to death things in your life that need killing off if you are to flourish as a Christian and as a truly human being, then Easter should mean planting, watering, and training up things in your life (personal and corporate) that ought to be blossoming, filling the garden with color and perfume and in due course bearing fruit… Jesus resurrection is the beginning of God’s new project not to snatch people away from earth to heaven but to colonize earth with the life of heaven.”
(Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church by N.T.Wright)

Wright’s reflection, along with Romans 6 and some other readings, have brought two questions to the surface this Eastertide:
1) What do I need to die to in order to more deeply fulfill God’s calling on my life?
2) What do I need to take up in order to more deeply fulfill God’s calling on my life?

These are lifelong, yearlong questions! But they seem especially relevant to the seasons of Lent and Eastertide. During Lent we are extra attentive to the sin we need to die to. During Eastertide it seems especially timely to consider all we need to take up, plant, water, and cultivate to more fully live the resurrection and represent new life!

I pray that I can give as much intention and attention to Eastertide this year, as Advent and Lent. I would love to hear how the Holy Spirit is cultivating new life in and through you. What Scriptures, reflections, and lessons inspire and challenge you to more fully live the resurrection this Eastertide?!