Lenten Reflections Week 5

A Meditation for the Fifth Week of Lent

It is worth any sacrifice, however great or costly
to see eyes that were listless, light up again
to see someone smile who seemed to have forgotten how to smile;
to see trust reborn in someone who no longer believed in anything or Anyone    
Dom Helder Camara [John Moses, The Desert:  Anthology for Lent, p. 101]

Prayer of the Week:
Holy Spirit, giving life to all life, moving all creatures, root of all things, washing them clean, wiping out their mistakes, healing their wounds, you are our true life, luminous,                                  wonderful, awakening the heart from its ancient sleep.            
Hildegard of Bingen [1098-1179]; trans. Stephen Mitchell 

Theme of the Week: 
Where is the oasis in my life and in this community?
Like any oasis, refreshment is often not visible until the 
desert traveler is suddenly beside it.
What has refreshed you today? 
What refreshment have you offered to someone today?

Spiritual Practice: Silence
Just three minutes a day of silence is a wonderful exercise to reset
your ears and to recalibrate so that you can hear the quiet again.
If you can't get absolute silence, go for quiet; that's absolutely fine.
-Julian Treasure

Only by going alone in silence, without baggage,
can one truly get into the heart of the wilderness.
All other travel is mere dust and hotels and baggage and chatter. 
-John Muir
 
We need to find God, and God cannot be found in noise and restlessness.
God is the friend of silence. See how nature - trees, flowers,
grass - grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun,
how they move in silence... We need silence to be able to touch souls.
-Mother Teresa
 
Sayings from the Desert
We have put aside the easy burden, which is self-accusation,
and weighed ourselves down with the heavy one, self-justification.
 -John the Dwarf
 
Whenever doubts and the silences of God seem to deepen,
will you look to discern the desert flower?
-Brother Roger of Taize

It is small advantage for eyes to see if the heart is blind.
-Abbot Nicholas
 
Recall that a solitary:
Seeks not the voice of God, but hears it in cracking ice,
blowing reed and friends’ laughter
seeks not the gifts of God, but finds them in new bread,
the darkness of dawn and friends’ love
seeks not the vision of God, but spies God’s Print on a bee’s wing,
fishes’ fin and a friend’s heart.
-Abbot NIcholas & John the Dwarf
[John Moses, The Desert: An Anthology for Lent, p. 110] 

Prayer from Sunday School:  from Rachel Carpenter
God's Eyes is a craft that I grew up doing at Bement Camp. (The camp that was
run by the Episcopal Diocese of Western MA).  I did not realize the significance of
this craft until just last week.   A God's Eye is a Mexican craft made for protection
from the uncertainties of the future.  These shields were called God's Eyes 
because through them a God might keep a watchful eye over the people
who made them.  

​To make a God's Eye, all you need is 2 popsicle sticks or 2 sticks from outside
and some yarn or string.  Instructions can be found at the link below.

As you are weaving, recite this prayer:
Angel of God, my Guardian dear,
To whom God's love commits me here;
Ever this day, be at my side
To light and guard
To rule and guide.