Wednesday, December 23, 2020
Tuesday, December 8, 2020
Tuesday, December 1, 2020
Matushka Olga of Alaska
In this time of COVID winter, we struggle to find ways to connect with our families and have genuine relationships with other women in the way we might have shared a coffee and chat before. Mother Matushka is not a saint officially yet but is recognized by her Alaskan Orthodox community as being a Mother of the Community. Apparently, her Mothering extends to all of North American, Canada included and I have been aware of a gentle influence while sitting with her on my pilgrimage of the discovery of Women of the Holy Cross, which was women on liturgical church calendars. Some women on his journey sat at the foot of the Cross, went in search of relics, found refuge in the imagery of the Holy Cross, and some women had by their trials become their own bearers of a cross in their lives. Matushka Olga is a Mother for Mothers and women beyond her borders and her skills as a midwife go far beyond birthing children but also seem to have a gentle capacity for deep caring and inner healing. Come sit with Mother Matushka in her spiritual home, have a cup of hot herbal tea and warm presence.
https://orthodoxcanada.ca/Saint_Matushka_Olga_Michael_of_Alaska
Saturday, November 14, 2020
Friday, November 13, 2020
Monday, November 9, 2020
Gold Leaves a Fall Devotional by GK Chesterton
Every so often I do a deep read with a particular well-known Author and GK Chesterton has been on my next list for some time. I have found in favorite cozy comfort mysteries such as Father Brown and with his friends such as Dorothy Sayers in their mystery writers club. However, I had not discovered Chesterton as a poet and Hoopla Digital allowed me this little visit into an out of print Chesterton Calendar quote and its more current version on an Imaginative Conservative blog.
Essentially this is the view from our front yard and daily news.
“Gold Leaves”
By G.K. Chesterton|November 4th, 2017|Categories: G.K. Chesterton, Poetry
Gold leaves! I come to autumn,
When all the leaves are gold;
Grey hairs and golden leaves cry out
The year and I are old.
In youth, I sought the prince of men,
Captain in cosmic wars,
Our Titan, even the weeds would show
Defiant, to the stars.
But now a great thing in the street
Seems any human nod,
Where shift in strange democracy
The million masks of God.
In youth, I sought the golden flower
Hidden in wood or wold,
But I come to autumn,
When all the leaves are gold.
Books on the topic of this poem may be found in The Imaginative Conservative Bookstore.
Tuesday, October 27, 2020
Monday, October 26, 2020
Saturday, October 24, 2020
Friday, October 23, 2020
Wednesday, October 14, 2020
Thursday, October 1, 2020
Saturday, September 26, 2020
Thursday, September 24, 2020
Monday, September 21, 2020
Monday, September 14, 2020
Today is the Feast Day of The Exultation of the Holy Cross.
What an unusual name for a Feast Day. When I first found this Feast Day listed, it did not really connect. It wasn't about a person and felt a bit hidden in ancient relics and customs. Although that has its own history the cross is still the primary symbol for Christians all over the world. We recognize the Cross as that place where Christ suffered and died for the world, and that important step on the road to resurrection. O death where is your Victory. When we look at the cross we remember both the Death and the Victory. In the midst of a worldwide pandemic perhaps this reality is more present than ever.
photo clip from google images ...
Thursday, August 27, 2020
Aug 27, Feast Day of St Monica Mother of Augustine of Hippo
The Confessions of St. Augustine give us some insight into not only his life but the many nights of prayer and tears she spent for the Conversion of St. Augustine. History tells us she was married to a pagan husband at an early age, had two sons and one daughter, and that her marriage was difficult, and made more so by a rather nasty mother in law. (Thank you God for a good one)
Its always handy to know what a Saint is known for and as one might guess in this case St. Monica has a special place with women in difficult marriages, people for praying for the conversion of family members and women who find themselves in a long list of difficult situations. St. Monica is known for her prayerful tears. She is remembered today in the Anglican collect as well as Catholic, Lutheran, and Orthodox. Churches and schools all over the world bear her name. She resonates with women all over the world who find themselves in places of trial. Monica persevered in Prayer and in many ways is the quasi-essential example of long-suffering prayer. Having a retake of her story within the pages of the Confessions of St. Augustine might be an interesting little adventure of encouragement.
Wednesday, August 19, 2020
Monday, August 10, 2020
The Mother Heart of God
Saturday, July 25, 2020
Thursday, July 23, 2020
Sunday, July 5, 2020
Thursday, July 2, 2020
Tuesday, June 16, 2020
Wednesday, June 10, 2020
A Time for Intercessors Is there a Better Time to Pray.
Photo by Olivia Snow.
Is there a better time to pray?
Recently with a worldwide pandemic more of us had time to stay at home, slow down
take some time away from our regular jobs, and consider our priorities. People reported
that the air seemed to be cleaner, the streets quieter, and they had time to reflect.
Naturally in the midst of all these people were anxious, confused, and in economic crisis.
Churches closed, we missed our friends, our services, and our liturgy. What many people
came to realize over time was that we could still pray at home. We could pray on Zoom,
we could pray in our prayer closets, we could pray in our yards, and gardens and
balconies. The connection of Christians all over the world felt smaller when we realized
others were praying. When you are feeling really anxious and dealing with a totally
as the popular term is a precedented event you need structure to keep you from flailing off
off in all directions. Prayer provides us with this kind of bookend structure to the day, as
well as stepping into the timeless readings of the Psalms which seems to have seen depths of
struggle well before our particular issue arrived. The Psalms give us perspective.
We may not think of ourselves as Intercessors. When I think of Intercessors I think of these
powerhouses of women, who you just know are prayer warriors and not the person like me
who still might drop a ## when I drop something, stumble or become irritated.
I wanted to be one of these women, but I was also quite frankly from some bad experiences
with let's say Haiti and its spiritual warfare, a bit nervous about hanging up a spiritual shingle a
and coming out with a label I could in no way represent. So because at the time I was a busy
working Mom in pre=COVID days, I found periodically I would get dropped with a burden for
one person and cart them around something like a donkey carting a load up the mountain. They
simply show up for prayer, as if assigned and it could be a few days, a week or a month or a
season. When the time was over, the burden would lift, like a donkey arriving at a location
and being relieved of a load, and there would be a long rest time before the next one. As this had
occurred for family members from a fairly early age, it was simply a shift over into others.
It didn't sound like Intercession to me. It was more like being a Prayer Donkey. Doing a bit of
reading on it as I was more familiar with lighter, just awareness that someone might need prayer
like we all due in just about any church on the planet, where prayer is offered, it was one person
at a time. One load up the mountain, or around the grainer mill. Not elaborate, not fancy, not even
what I would call super-spiritual because it was very distinctly labor. Load sharing. Then gone.
Doing some reading it seems that there are different kinds of intercession and intercessors along with
models and people who we identify with as people of prayer over time. There are Biblical Types and t
there are historical types.
Think for a moment about some prayer role models you have;
Biblical, Church History, or Personal. Maybe it was your Granny, maybe someone in your childhood, maybe someone down the street, perhaps someone in a story or scripture.
List 3-5 you would like to reflect on.
What made them memorable, why did they influence you, what did you notice about their relationship with God.
Sunday, March 22, 2020
Thursday, February 13, 2020
Tuesday, January 21, 2020
Women in the Bible :Anna the Prophetess
Anna the Prophetess Luke 2:21-39
At the Presentation of the infant Jesus at the temple in Jerusalem two older people appeared. One was Simeon who had been waiting for the consolation of Israel and scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit was upon him and the other was Anna a Prophetess.
36: There was also a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was very old: she had lived with her husband for seven years after her marriage, 37, and then was a widow until she was 84. (e) She never left the temple but worshiped night and day, fasting and praying. 38 Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.
This is a very compact description of Anna but there are several things that could get missed in the text as the main players in this story are the Jewish parent actions of Presenting Jesus as the Law required at the temple. It seems Jesus would have been circumcized closer to home and then his parents waiting the time of purification for Jewish women ( forty days check details and source) took the journey up to Jerusalem with their little son to consecrate their son to God.
The stage is the magnificent Temple in Jerusalem, full of the noise, smells sounds of animals for sacrifice, people coming through the gates of the city to worship and the jostling around of the crowds at a busy sight. There is tension under the Presentation that can become lost in the beauty of the story. It is the when of this occurrence. Reading Matthew 2 we miss this bit little important bit of the infancy of Jesus and we are caught up in the Visit of the Magi, the rage of Herod, the killing of all little boys under 2 in Bethlehem and the Flight into Egypt. The Presentation of infant Jesus at the temple had to come before the flight into Egypt. After the birth in Bethlehem, after the shepherds had come to worship Him, there is a time question, a window of time some people think it could be about two years. It may be in this time as the time of women's purification by Jewish law is set and perhaps before the Wisemen have the chance to arrive that Anna and Simeon come on the stage in this important moment in the life of Christ.
What does the story of Anna say to us today? That she had a keen spiritual insight due to her prayer life and devotion and her role as a prophetess. We know she waited, fasted and prayed. Not for a few weeks, not for a few months but for 84 years. She is both the last prophetess of the Old Testament and the First of the New. She is compared to Judith in her virtue and long years. Even after years of waiting for something that did not seem to readily appear, at the exact moment that Mary and Joseph and the Christchild came into the Temple, she and Simeon were both there. Waiting and right on time. Anna stretches me to be so sensitive to the voice of the Spirit that even in the midst of the dark, the light appears. This is why Candlemass the time between the dark and the light. the time of the Presentation is that time where the light appears, and a little old lady who had sat there waiting for 84 years was waiting. Can we be that patient and persevere.