A Blessed Holy Saturday to You

 

From Jeremy Thomas at JEREMY THOMAS ART

 

Awkward - Maundy Thursday Meditation from Ronald Rolheiser

 

The Humility of Jesus - Lance Brown

                                                            A Basin and Towel

We might find it curious that on Holy Thursday, when we are celebrating the institution of the Eucharist, the Gospel is taken from John’s version of the Last Supper. Where the other Gospels have Jesus taking bread and wine and consecrating it, John has him taking a basin and towel and washing his disciples’ feet. What has this to do with Eucharist?

Everything! Scholars estimate that John’s Gospel was written somewhere between AD 90–100, seventy some years after Jesus’ death. John (if he himself actually did the writing) would be a man well into his nineties, and he would have been a man who had now seen more than seventy years of church life. Seventy years of church life then were like seventy years of church life now. They fought about almost everything! Not least, about the Eucharist. How often should it be celebrated? To what aspect of Jesus’ life and teaching should it be most attached? Who presides? By the time John wrote his Gospel, there were already different and competing theologies about the Eucharist in the early church.

Hence, rather than highlighting the bread and wine at the Last Supper, John highlights instead the basin and towel. By doing this, the ninety-something beloved disciple, in substance, is saying: This is what the Eucharist means. It asks us to move beyond our divisions and reach across our differences by this kind of humility.

As a priest, I have always found the actual ritual of washing feet during the Holy Thursday liturgy to be awkward. There is no aesthetic way of doing this. For years, I hated the ritual until one day I realized that awkwardness was an essential part of it. It is meant to be awkward because it is awkward and uncomfortable to reach across to others when there are differences. We do it anyway, because it has everything to do with Eucharist.

Fr. Ronald Rolheiser

Ronald Rolheiser, OMI, teaches at the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas, where he served as president for fifteen years. His books are popular throughout the English-speaking world, and his weekly column is carried by more than seventy newspapers worldwide.

--

National Champions, Baby!

     So proud of the Gamecocks!  Well done, you awesome women!

Growing Up in Georgetown - Remembrances from my Mother.

 

Clock Tower, Now Rice Museum - Georgetown, SC

Photo by Tony Morano

   My mother, Sarah Bull Clarkson, (1926-2021) grew up in Georgetown, SC and penned this piece in 1993 for her high school reunion - Winyah High School- Class of 1944.  What an endearing glimpse of small-town life! 

Growing Up in Georgetown Was....

Having an entire town and county to roam totally unconcerned about safety.

Leaving doors unlocked.

Playing out after dark.

Going for Sunday afternoon rides around the Boulevard.

Attending Daily Vacation Bible School at the Baptist Church.

Meeting everybody in town in curlers and robes at house fires; the fire alarm being the town clock which gave the location of the fire.

Having the ice wagon come every day, and groceries delivered from C. L. Ford Mercantile Company.

May Day parades down Front Street ending at the Turner's big yard on Prince Street for the May Pole dance, games and costume contest.

Going to the Strand Theater every Saturday; being in love with Gary Cooper, trying to walk like Bette Davis, and wishing I could look like Loretta Young. All the while avoiding the gum stuck under the seats.

Being scared of our Principal, Mr. Bynum, or "Gum Shoe" as we called him very privately.

Taking half-dead cats to Dr. Phillip Assey, M.D. for medical care.

Remembering Halloween night as a young child, dragging trolley cars made of shoe boxes with tissue paper stain glass windows and a lighted candle inside. In later years, harassing the neighbors by ringing their doorbell and hiding. There were no treats, only tricks.

Seeing the wash women walking with huge loads of laundry balanced on their heads with all the dignity of African queens.

Living in peace and harmony with our black neighbors literally neighbors - for most of those years.

Waking up in the dark dawn on Christmas, hearing the black people singing carols as they walked through town.

Remembering teachers Misses Minnie and Birdie Condon, and Miss Ethel Bellune.

Remembering the Gladstone Hotel, the Atlantic Coast Lumber Company, Buster Brown shoes, Fogel's Department Store, and Mr. Maness’ unisex barber shop.

BEING A WINYAH HIGH GATOR WAS:

Cheering the football team on Friday nights. We knew that our team (1943 — 44) led by Jack Miller and "Bird" Bourne was the very best ever.

Detesting every teenager in Andrews sight unseen.

Mr. William Young's Latin class.

Being compared unfavorably with my older and smarter siblings by Miss Sadie Hazzard.

Aggravating Miss Pence during Glee Club practice so that she stamped a foot breaking off a high heel much to our delight.

Being in the Miss Georgetown beauty pageant and losing to a beautiful and blonde Frances Cameron.

Remembering the time Jane Woodcock turned up with orange hair having washed it in Octagon soap and then sat in the sun.

Playing "spin the bottle" at Janie Harrelson's house.

Remembering a very hip Jack Blount and his band.

Decorating the high school gymnasium with crepe paper festoons.

Yearning for the Evening In Paris in the window of Isman's Drug Store. The cobalt blue bottles of cologne and boxes of powder nestled in white satin evoking dreams of romance.

Sitting in the porch swing at the McKinney's, sipping blackberry acid with Mary, Johnnie Doyle, and Jane Skinner.

Dancing the Big and the Little Apple at Pawley’s Island Pavilion.

Milk shakes at the Milk Bar after school.

Drinking cherry cokes with ammonia at the drug store.

Dates at the Whistling Pig Drive-In.

Riding in the rumble seat of Bobby Mahon’s cool Ford Coupe.

BEING IN GEORGETOWN DURING THOSE YEARS WAS:

Living with a large assortment of interesting and eccentric people; some of whom today would most certainly be in the mental health system. Learning tolerance, understanding, and appreciation of the infinite variety of the human family that made up Georgetown.

Like most of our families enduring the poverty that was the Depression, and at the same time being wealthy beyond belief in everything that was of any importance whatsoever.

Written April 1993 on the occasion of the reunion of the classes of Winyah High School

Georgetown, South Carolina

1943 and 1944.

Sarah Bull Clarkson

Class of 1944

For St. Patrick's Day - from Jan Richardson

 

                                        Image: “Encompassed” © janrichardsonimages.com

From Jan Richardson

Blessings to you on this Saint Patrick’s Day! Today and always, I am so grateful for the gift I received of stretches of time and space to write in Ireland. It has been a place of deep solace, good cheer, and welcome. I began writing this blessing there and wanted to tuck it into your hand today. May we keep learning what it means to receive and offer the gift of welcome, especially when we are at our most lost.

WELCOMING BLESSING

When you are lost

in your own life.

When the landscape

you have known

falls away.

When your familiar path

becomes foreign

and you find yourself

a stranger

in the story you had held

most dear.

Then let yourself

be lost.

Let yourself leave

for a place

whose contours

you do not already know,

whose cadences

you have not learned

by heart.

Let yourself land

on a threshold

that mirrors the mystery

of your own

bewildered soul.

It will come

as a surprise,

what arrives

to welcome you

through the door,

making a place for you

at the table

and calling you

by your name.

Let what comes,

come.

Let the glass

be filled.

Let the light

be tended.

Let the hands

lay before you

what will meet you

in your hunger.

Let the laughter.

Let the sweetness

that enters

the sorrow.

Let the solace

that comes

as sustenance

and sudden, unbidden

grace.

For what comes,

offer gladness.

For what greets you

with kindly welcome,

offer thanks.

Offer blessing

for those

who gathered you in

and will not

be forgotten—

those who,

when you were

a stranger,

made a place for you

at the table

and called you

by your name.

—Jan Richardson

from The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief

Bonus round: I love Gary’s wondrous song about Saint Patrick; you can find his recording of “Patrick on the Water” here: soundcloud.com/garrisondoles/patrick-on-the-water.

Image: “Encompassed” © janrichardsonimages.com

Litany to the Lamb of God - with special intention for peace in Ukraine

 

A Litany to the Lamb of God in the Time of War

with special intention for Peace in Ukraine and all places presently torn by strife

 

 V.  May the Lord give us peace    R.  Peace and good will.

  Lord Jesus Christ, who didst say to Thy Apostles, Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you; look not upon our sins, but upon the faith of Thy Church and vouchsafe to us that peace and unity which is agreeable to Thy will,  Who livest and reignest, God forever and ever.  Amen

Lord, have mercy.  Christ, have mercy.   Lord, have mercy. 

 Jesus, hear us.  Jesus, graciously hear us.

By the hymn of the angels at thy birth,   We plead for Thy Peace. 

By thy salutation to the Apostles, We plead for Thy Peace.

By thy voice to the waves of Galilee, We plead for Thy Peace.

By thy blessing to the sinner, We plead for Thy Peace.

By thy prayers for unity among Thy disciples,  We plead for Thy Peace.

By the love that was to mark thy followers, We plead for Thy Peace.

By the great peace offering of the Cross, We plead for Thy Peace.

By thy parting promise, My peace I leave you,  We plead for Thy Peace.

 

From the ambition of empire,  Deliver us, O Lord!

From the greed for territory, Deliver us, O Lord!

For the blindness that is injustice, Deliver us, O Lord!

From the selfishness that is theft, Deliver us, O Lord!

From the liberty which is license, Deliver us, O Lord!

From the love of money which is idolatry, Deliver us, O Lord!

From the hate that is murder, Deliver us, O Lord!

From the hardness that will not pardon, Deliver us, O Lord!

From the pride which will not ask for pardon, Deliver us, O Lord!

 

By the helpless cry of orphans,   We beseech Thee to hear us.

By the fierce grief of parents, We beseech Thee to hear us.

By the anguished tears of widows and widowers,    We beseech Thee to hear us.

By the groans of the dying, We beseech Thee to hear us.

By the dead in unblessed graves or left unburied, We beseech Thee to hear us.

That Thou wouldst protect and give courage to all just leaders, We beseech Thee to hear us.

That Thou wouldst pour out thy wisdom upon all nations,  We beseech Thee to hear us.   

 That Thou wouldst make all nations to dwell as one, We beseech Thee to hear us.

That having learned in affliction, we may turn to Thee,  We beseech Thee to hear us. 

By thy name, Prince of Peace,  We beseech Thee to hear us.     

 

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,   Have mercy upon us.

Lamb of God, Who takest away the sins of the world,  Have mercy upon us.

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world,  Grant us thy peace.

O Christ, hear us.   O Christ, hear us.

 Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy Name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

 V.  O Lord, let thy mercy be upon us and all who cry to you for help.  R.  As we do put our trust in thee.

Let us pray.  O God, from Whom doth proceed all holy desires, all right counsels and just works:  grant unto us, Thy servants that peace which the world cannot  give, that our hearts may be devoted to Thy service, and being delivered from the fear of our enemies, we may pass our time in peace under Thy protections.  Through Christ our Lord.  Amen.

 

The sources for this litany include, primarily, the Litany to the Lamb of God written by or under the auspices of Pope Benedict XV in 1915, and The Great Litany – Book of Common Prayer. Minor Adaptations by the Rev. JCO. 3.12.22

Pray for Ukraine

 

    In 2004, John and I traveled to Ukraine to bring home three new family members - two brothers and a sister. Since that time, we've maintained a heart connection to that remarkable country, and we have watched in horror and grief as Russia under the direction of Putin has launched an attack on them.  Our children's home in Ukraine was the oblast (state) of Chernigiv which is to the north and east of Kyiv      (pronounced Keev). 

    More and more it seems to me that Putin is intent on possessing Ukraine no matter the cost in lives and destruction. This isa glimpse into the heart of a murderer - if I can't have them, no one else can.

      As of this writing, the NATO alliance is not willing to block the air space in order to protect Ukraine.  Without over-simplifying a deeply complex situation, it appears to me that we have a predator in the neighborhood (the global community) who is preying on a weak neighbor.  To complicate matters, that predator is well armed, and, if provoked, will not hesitate to rain down destruction on the whole neighborhood.  How then do we proceed?  My concern is that if we allow the predator to continue, there will be more and more victims.  If we determine to stop him, then we risk our own well-being to say nothing of the innocent family of the predator. 

 I am praying for wisdom for our leaders.