An Image... Good Friday

Icon of the Crucifixion

What do you notice?........Is there anything in the icon to which you are particularly drawn?........What prayers emerge as you gaze?..........

I will admit, I do not like to look at crucifixion scenes.  It is really very hard for me, and takes a concerted effort not simply to turn away.

But that is the point, isn't it?  Or at least one of them.........the invitation to see and to notice the depth of pain, suffering, and oppression in our world.  And by looking and noticing, will it change us in the choices we make in our lives?  Will we, like Jesus, choose to stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters, and work for the Kingdom----for good news for the poor, for release to the captives, for recovery of sight to the blind?  Will we labor with God that the oppressed may go free?

My brothers and sisters, let us not turn away.  Let us look at the very soul of what is before us, and be transformed as we commit ourselves each day to a life of love, service and solidarity with all God's beloved children.

With much love and many prayers,
Julia

An Image... Maundy Thursday

The Washing of the Feet
By Jesus Mafa

• 

What do you notice in this painting?  What strikes you?  Is there anything you particularly notice that resonates with your life, with your experience?

I am struck by the light and the shadow of the image, and how Peter is trying mightily to hide his feet, away and in the shadows, out of reach from Jesus' gentle, yet strong and attending hands.

Jesus is always reaching out to us with these hands, and in as intimate a way as to wash our feet.  And yet, for whatever reason, we hold back in the shadows.....maybe not our whole selves, but perhaps just that part.  That part we feel to be too beat up or grungy or that we know, if we take a whiff, just smells really bad.  Let's be honest about it.  We all have those places, those pieces, those wounded or weary or smelly places in our lives.

I imagine, as I gaze upon this painting, Peter saying, "Oh no, Jesus!  You do not want to go there!"  And yet that is Jesus' very desire and offering.  To tend with love and care and gentleness and goodness of strength to those very places that are beat up or grungy or smelly or wounded, those very places we seek to hide in the shadows of who we are.

It is your choice...Jesus always offers but never forces our opening up to his tender, healing, attentive touch.

And so, the question emerges.........How do you wish to choose today?.......

With love and prayers for you, and for all our Incarnation family together, that we may know a journey filled with sacred blessings this Holy Week.

With much love and many prayers,
Mother Julia

Early Morning on Palm Sunday......

“What is the journey before me?”  

“How will I journey?” 

“What will happen?”  

“Will God really be with me?” 

I imagine these questions moving powerfully through the whole of Jesus’ being as he sat upon the colt, atop the Mount of Olives, looking down upon the city of Jerusalem below.

I think we sometimes forget that as Jesus sat astride the colt, and began his descent into Jerusalem, that he did not know exactly what was going to happen.  Jesus was riding into the thickness of the unknown, and it was an unknown filled with an atmosphere of oppression and fear and anger and injustice.  What was to be?

I invite us this Holy Week to “unknow” the Passion Story, and so to experience it anew, particularly as it resonates with our own lives. This is an important invitation, because it helps us to enter into the very depths of the story, so that it may again surprise us and shock us and astound us, and as it does so, open us ever more deeply to the tremendous truth and power of the Paschal Mystery, the truth and power of God’s love.

May you know the gift of some spaciousness of time and prayer this Holy Week, and may your Holy Week journey be blessed by being touched with the depth of the love of God, as, perhaps, you ask some of these same questions in your life------ “What is the journey before me?”  “How will I journey?”  “What will happen?”  “Will God really be with me?”

May the blessings of Holy Week nurture in you the transformative and sustaining mysteries of resurrection life.

With much love,

Julia

Mary's Anointing of Jesus' Feet

My Brothers and Sisters,

  

I share with you an image.

It is an icon from our gospel story for this Sunday, of Mary of Bethany anointing Jesus’ feet six days before the Passover, during a feast hosted by Lazarus and his family (think Lazarus, Mary, and Martha).  If you would like to read the story, you will find it in the gospel of John, chapter twelve.

What do you notice in the icon? …. Take your time……  To what are you drawn?.....  Is there something you notice resonating with your own heart and life?....... Are there any prayers that emerge as you notice and gaze?

 

Gazing upon icons is a powerful spiritual tool and practice.  It invites us into an intimate encounter with ourselves and with God.  It nurtures a depth of communion that can transform us.

As we begin to move closer to Holy Week, I will be sending you icons to journey with us along the way.  And if you would like, I would love to hear from you of how or where these icons, and so the Holy Spirit, has touched your heart.  It is deeply good that we can journey this road together.

My Brothers and Sisters, I see the light of Christ in you every time we meet!

With much love and many prayers,

Julia

Transformation

Beloved Brothers and Sisters,

I share with you and image and a poem:

If Jesus Could

By Tom Lane

If Jesus could transform

common water into wedding wine,

spit and dirt into new sight,

troubled sea into a pathway,

well water into living water,

Could Christ transform

the waters of my life,

shallow, murky, polluted,

stagnant, sour,

into a shower of blessing?

Yes! Jesus indeed can and does do this very thing!  Jesus is always immersed in the work of transformation ---again and again and again.  That’s what salvation really is.  It is the transformation of difficulty and alienation and pain into workableness and communion and blessing.  This not to say that pain or difficulty disappears.  But it is to say that it is transformed to be a source, perhaps even a deep well, of God’s goodness and grace in our lives, and so too in the lives of our communities.

Have you noticed how Jesus’ works of transformation are not works that start with something brand new, but rather work with the very things that are already there?  Think of Jesus’ transformation of the water into wine at the wedding at Cana.  Think of the feeding of the multitudes, starting only with a few fish and a few loaves of bread.  Think of the spit and the dirt that brought new sight.  Think of your own lives.

Go ahead, take some time…….reflect…….notice……pray.  Where has God brought transformation, salvation, into your life?  What does it feel like?  What do you notice?  What surprises you?  What sustains you?  How has this experience, how does this experience, continue to touch you?  Is it nurturing the growth of a special ministry in your life?

It’s usually those rough places in our lives, isn’t it, that we experience the most transformation.  Jesus loves those rough places. Just loves them.  They are right where he wants to be.  They are right where he is.

As always, you are so very much in my heart and my prayers.

With love and celebration for the gift of you and God as one,

Julia

P.S.  Did you notice Mary in the icon?  We'll talk about her on Sunday.  What do you think is going on?

Are We Ready to Welcome the Mystery?

Beloved Brothers and Sisters,

As I prepare to leave for family travels, I wanted to share with you a story.  It is a story shared with me many years ago, a story that gave birth to this beautiful painting---a powerful image of the visitation of Mary with Elizabeth, their presence to one another, and their marveling at the mysterious workings of God.

The Windsock Visitation
 by Brother Michael O'Neill McGrath

The story goes like this---A community of Sisters, The Visitation Order, established one of their homes in the inner city of Minneapolis, responding to God’s call to them to be a place of prayer and presence for their surrounding community, and in particular to the children.

The sisters quickly noticed a need for the children to have a warm, safe, and welcoming place to come to in those crucial after school hours, as well as during some of those long vacations.  And so the sisters began to open up their home---offering a warm welcome, a healthy snack, time and support for homework, as well as a safe place simply to play, to laugh, and to have that sacred space freely to be God’s beautiful children.

The sisters soon realized, however, that they were not always able to serve the children as often as there was need, for there were days and times where their other ministries called them away. Yet they knew that this work they were doing was essential, indeed God-breathed, and that they could not give up on it.  And so they met with the children and what emerged was a beautiful plan. 

Whenever the Sisters were able to offer this sacred space of welcome to the children, they would hang a windsock out on the front porch.  The children would watch for it, and when they saw it they would know that the Sisters were present, ready, and delighted to welcome them in.

Can you imagine being a child and watching for that windsock?  Can you imagine the joy of entering in to the Sister’s home and receiving such a warm welcome?  Can you imagine the joy of the Sisters in welcoming the children?

It’s amazing, really, these two stories---the Sisters and the Children; Mary and Elizabeth--  for they both speak of welcoming the mystery of the very real presence and the very real movement of God in our midst, and that seeming obstacles are no obstacles at all!  God is in our midst! 

My Brothers and Sisters, I see the light of Christ in you!  Let us go forth and serve with that light, entrusting our ministries to the same abundant Spirit that inspired the Windsock Visitation, and that brought forth and brings forth to and from all of us the Blessed Incarnation.

With much love and many prayers for you, and for a blessed journey of Advent and Christmas,

Julia

Being the Light of Christ for Those in Darkness

My Brothers and Sisters,

As we continue to mourn and to be deeply perplexed and troubled by the last week's tragedy in Connecticut, I share with you this clip I came across through the PBS Newshour:

As more details emerge about Friday's Connecticut school shooting, thousands of Americans found comfort in the following touching image and quote from the late Fred Rogers:

Photo by Jim Judkis

"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.' To this day, especially in times of 'disaster,' I remember my mother's words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers -- so many caring people in this world."

My Brothers and Sisters, may we seek, with the gift of God's empowering grace, to be those helping and caring people in this world.  May we seek, in other words, to be the light of Christ to and with all the world.

I see the light of Christ in you.

With love and prayers,
Julia