Christ the Lord Is Risen Today

Cristo ha resucitado! En verdad, esta resucitado!

Christ the Lord is risen today, Alleluia!
Earth and heaven in chorus say, Alleluia!
Raise your joys and triumphs high, Alleluia!
Sing, ye heavens, and earth reply, Alleluia!

Love's redeeming work is done, Alleluia!
Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia!
Death in vain forbids him rise, Alleluia!
Christ has opened paradise, Alleluia!

Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!
Where, O death, is now thy sting? Alleluia!
Once he died our souls to save, Alleluia!
Where's thy victory, boasting grave? Alleluia!

Soar we now where Christ has led, Alleluia!
Following our exalted Head, Alleluia!
Made like him, like him we rise, Alleluia!
Ours the cross, the grave, the skies, Alleluia!

Hail the Lord of earth and heaven, Alleluia!
Praise to thee by both be given, Alleluia!
Thee we greet triumphant now, Alleluia!
Hail the Resurrection, thou, Alleluia!

King of glory, soul of bliss, Alleluia!
Everlasting life is this, Alleluia!
Thee to know, thy power to prove, Alleluia!
Thus to sing, and thus to love, Alleluia!
~ John Wesley

Holy Saturday

I continue to find reflection this church year with a book that follows the seasons and traditions of one Benedictine monastery. The section on Easter details worship during Holy Week. I especially found the following quote on Holy Saturday helpful and meaningful.

“Holy Saturday follows, called ‘the most blessed Sabbath on which Christ sleeps,’ by the Liturgy. I am particularly fond of Holy Saturday. In a way, it is even quieter than Good Friday, since no liturgy is celebrated, but we share both in the sorrow of the Passion and burial of Jesus and in the anticipated joy of the Resurrection. An Eastern Byzantine text poignantly conveys the mystery of Holy Saturday:

'O happy tomb! You received within yourself
the Creator and the Author of life.
O strange wonder! He who dwells on high
is sealed beneath the earth with his own consent.'

The stillness, the deep silence, and the peace we experience on Holy Saturday, keeping watch by the tomb of Christ, is perhaps the best preparation for the explosive, all-powerful joy of the Resurrection. Very often in life, we are likewise led through loss and sorrow to a new phase of peace and understanding that ultimately culminates in deep joy.”
(Monastic Year: Reflections from a Monastery, Brother Victor-Antoine D’Avila-Latourrette)

Good Friday

Last night I came home from dinner and watching The Passion of the Christ with the Deans just a few minutes before midnight. Just across the street and outside my window is a historic church, San Pedro Telmo built by the Jesuits in 1733. As I was getting ready for bed, I heard singing outside. I looked outside the window and there was a fairly large crowd singing outside the church to begin Good Friday. It was a meaningful close to my mediations on the Stations of the Cross this Lent. Later this afternoon I will go back to the Deans and we will go through a portion of the Book of Common Prayer Good Friday liturgy. Tonight I will attend a Good Friday communion service at the church.

On another note, I would appreciate prayers for my grandfather who is 85. He had two intensive care hospital visits late last year and he has never fully regained his health and strength. His heart is extremely weak and has an irregular heartbeat. Most recently this last month he was fighting a bad virus, so the doctors are giving him extra attention right now. Please pray for his health and God’s strength for both him and my grandma. I know they are tired and discouraged at times.

Here are a couple pics of the church outside my window and balcony.

connecting lent and easter

Yesterday I got internet going at my temporary apartment here in Buneos Aires. This should make it easier to get back into a blogging groove these weeks ahead. I continue to find writing and blogging a helpful way to process and reflect...whether anyone actually reads this stuff or not. :)

Amidst the busy activity of preparing to leave Argentina, I spent time this Lent season in the Stations of the Cross. Scriptures of Jesus’ arrest, trial, and crucifixion, along with a couple resources guided my meditations these past several weeks of Lent. Thursday night I will bring my way of the cross Lenten journey to a close and watch The Passion of the Christ with the Jeremiah and Jennifer. (The Forcattos are out of town for a few days spending time with Walter’s parents who are here visiting Argentina.) The film is center around the traditional Stations of the Cross. Today in my exploring of the city, I visited the downtown Cathedral. The Cathedral had some very old, beautiful, and detailed Stations of the Cross paintings around church. I spent time observing the people surrounding Jesus and their different reactions to him and his cross. However, I did notice how sanitized and clean Jesus was in these paintings. Not a drop of blood on him from the beatings that proceeded his carrying his cross to Golgotha. Even the crown of thorns seemed to sit gently on his head. He actually looked pretty capable of carrying the cross without falling down or needing assistance. The paintings were a pretty big contrast to the reality represented in The Passion.

I have been contemplating Romans 6:1-14 this Passion Week in preparation for Good Friday and Easter. “If we have been united with him in death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his…Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him” Romans 6:5, 8. While Lent and Good Friday gives space for self-examination to more deeply grasp our death to sin because of Christ’s work on the cross, Resurrection Sunday reminds us of the new life and hope we also share in Christ.

In my blog surfing this week, I found a great quote from N.T. Wright on Christine Sine’s Godspace blog….

“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)

(Looks like I have one more book to get my hands on this year!) These words of Wright helped me connect the dots of Lent and Easter...The death to sin and resurrection of new life we share with Christ that we read about in Romans 6. Really timely connections points as I continue in my themes of hope, reconciliation, and new life this year. Especially good stuff to contemplate and soak in this Holy Weekend ahead! As Lent draws to a close and Good Friday is upon us, may our year-round season of living the Resurrection take deeper root in our hearts and impact the way we live and share the Kingdom with those around us!

joy of your salvation!

Last week I got a double dose of the Book of Common Prayer liturgy for Ash Wednesday. Psalm 51 is the primary Scripture in this liturgy. I was reminded of my Lenten devotions last year in Cape Town on the "joy of your salvation"! Here is part of what I posted last Lent...

"This morning I started a book for Lent, "The Joy of Your Salvation: Reflections on the Psalms of Lent" by Deborah McCann. The title of the book is taken from Psalm 51, the first Psalm of Lent this Ash Wednesday. “Restore to me the joy of your salvation…” (Ps. 51:12). In the introduction the author of the book recognizes the importance and value of the season of penitence and introspection during Lent, but she also recognizes Lent as a “season of profound, abiding joy, a time for celebrating God’s overwhelming mercy and love for us.” She goes on to say, “Through these songs [Psalms] of yearning, loss, repentance, and triumph, you may hear you’re your own voice, and can join in praising the wonder and glory of a God who restores to us the joy of God’s salvation (Psalm 51).”

Good words as we move forward in this Lenten season!

ash wednesday & book of common prayer

Today I attended an Ash Wednesday service. Here is just some of the liturgy from the Book of Common Prayer before the ashes were imposed and communion was taken. The liturgy and the Scriptures could be helpful to those observing Lent this year.

Let us pray. Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wickedness, may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Old Testament: Joel 2:1-2, 12-17, or Isaiah 58:1-12
Psalm 103, or 103:8-14
Epistle: 2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10
Gospel: Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great devotion the days of our Lord's passion and resurrection, and it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a season of penitence and fasting. This is season of Lent provided a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to the fellowship of the Church. Thereby, the whole congregation was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith. I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word. And, to make a right beginning of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now kneel before the Lord, our maker and redeemer.

(For the entire liturgy you can check out this link to the Book of Common Prayer I found online: http://holycross-raleigh.org/bcp/264.html.)

ash wednesday

I came across this thoughtful meditation on Lent...

"Lent is a journey, a pilgrimage! Yet, as we begin it, as
we make the first step into the ‘bright sadness’ of
Lent, we see – far away – the destination. It is the joy
of Easter; it is the entrance into the glory of the
Kingdom. And it is the vision, the foretaste of Easter,
that make Lent’s sadness bright and our Lenten effort a
‘spiritual spring.’” Fr. Alexander Schememann, Great Lent

Today I also started receiving a daily Lent devotional email from CRM, a ministry that includes InnerCHANGE and NieuCommunities. You can check it out and sign-up here: http://www.crmleaders.org/lent

st. benedict & lent

“In you, LORD my God, I put my trust. I trust in you; do not let me be put to shame, nor let my enemies triumph over me. No one who hopes in you will ever be put to shame, but shame will come on those who are treacherous without cause. Show me your ways, LORD, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. Remember, LORD, your great mercy and love, for they are from of old." ~ Psalm 25:1-6

Lent is nearly upon us with Ash Wednesday this February 6. Like Advent, making space for Lent is something fairly new in my relationship with God. Last year I attended my first Ash Wednesday service in Cape Town. This weekend I have been reading and reflecting some more on Lent in preparation for the weeks ahead. My prayer and desire is to make effort to posture my heart for the themes of Lent. Part of my preparation has been reading a bit of what St. Benedict teaches on Lent in his Rule of Life. He says, “the life of a monk ought always to have the character of a Lenten observance.” For St. Benedict Lent was the model for the monastic life of those striving to live under the Rule.

St. Benedict proposes the following Lenten practices in the Rule: 1) refraining from sin; 2) prayer with tears; 3) holy reading; 4) repentance; 5) abstinence from food. Of course, these practices and posture are important year round, but during Lent they can take on increased attention and discipline leading up to Easter. Perhaps these timeless Lenten principles from St. Benedict can help us rediscover fresh and renewed meaning and experience in Lent.

I confess that I am experiencing some tension and reluctance in my desire to dive deeper into Lent this year. As I consider the five practices above, I would rather avoid some of them. The focus on sin, tears, repentance, and abstinence is not easy. My watered down understanding of Lent is a much easier path. This morning Psalm 25 is especially significant as I consider Lent.

Lord, show me your ways, teach me your paths, and guide me in your truth! You are God my Savior, and my hope is in you!

What an appropriate prayer of hope and trust in the Lord as we enter this Lenten season of 2008!

ash wednesday & lent...next week

Ash Wednesday is already next week...February 6! Like Advent, Lent has recently become a increasingly meaningful annual rhythm in my abiding with God. I hope to post some reflections and links during this Lenten season, in preparation for Easter Week. Here are just a few for starters....

CRI Voice: Introduction to Lent
The Season of Lent by Dennis Bratcher
(Includes other Lent and Holy Week readings and links.)
http://www.cresourcei.org/cylent.html

A Journey into Wholeness Lenten Series by Christine Sine
(This guide was created by Christine Sine in 2007…just adjust the dates for 2008.)
http://www.slideshare.net/seasickdoctor/a-journey-into-wholeness-lenten-series

Godspace Blog by Christine Sine
(Should include some good Lent reflections and links.)
http://godspace.wordpress.com/

more on epiphany

Recently I have enjoyed following the church calendar with a little book, A Monastic Year: Reflections from a Monastery. As this Christmas season draws to a close with Epiphany on Sunday, the below reflection reminds us that we now look forward and prepare for Lent and the Easter resurrection of our Lord. As we bow down and worship the King along with the magi this Epiphany, it is a good reminder that the gift of myrrh was for burial of kings. We remember what is ahead for Jesus. Easter is the earliest it ever falls this year, which means Ash Wednesday is just a month away on February 6.

“There are many monastic customs varying from country to country and from monastery to monastery, associated with the feast of Epiphany. Our beautiful ancient custom that remains alive to this day in almost all monasteries is this solemn announcement during Mass of the dates of the moveable feasts of the coming year: Ash Wednesday, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, and, at the end, the first Sunday of Advent. The announcement proclaims, “As we have recently rejoiced over the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, now through the mercy of God, we can look forward to the happiness that will stem from the Resurrection of the same Lord and Savior.” With Epiphany we in the monastery reach the peak of our Christmas celebrations. Then the year proceeds seemingly slowly, as winter follows its normal course, and our monastic solitude becomes more complete during the cold months. Not too far on the horizon, however, is the arrival of the Lenten-spring, with its hidden promise of Easter Joy.” (Taken from: A Monastic Year: Reflections from a Monastery by Brother Victor-Antoine D’ Avila-Latourrete)

Just a side note….once again I am struck with how much I read on Advent and Lent that revolves around Northern Hemisphere seasons. It might be a little harder for my Southern Hemisphere friends to connect with the cold months of winter parallel while in the heat of summer in January. Or even my friends in tropical climates that never have any winter. I, myself, am thinking ahead to when I am in Argentina soon….where it was a sweltering 100 degrees this week! Anyone know of Lent reflections and meditations written for autumn in the Southern Hempishere?? :)