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Archives for May 2015

Tongues of Fire and a Fiery Vestment

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“When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.”  Acts 2:1-4 (NRSV)

Many words come to mind when I think of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, also called the Holy Comforter, is the Person of the Trinity I call upon when I am scared or need comfort. But on the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit seems less like a Comforter and more like a rocket launcher. The wild, untamable Spirit of God propels the disciples and people in Jerusalem to actions and speech out of their control. Pentecost is called the birthday of the Church because on this day God anoints and commissions individuals to spread the Good News as a community and to go places where they would not dare to go on their own.

When I feel brave enough to surrender to the Holy Spirit, this is what I pray. (Fill in the blank with the words in the drawing.) “Holy Spirit, __________ me/us.” I believe the Spirit still wants to fire up the Church to do these things for us as individuals and as the Body of Christ in the world.

Pentecost 2015 v2

For the past few years I have not thought of Pentecost without the piece of silk below coming to mind. My mother was a dancer and this was her costume from Stravinsky’s Firebird ballet in the 1930’s. My husband Andy repurposed it as a Pentecost chausuble–a colorful outer liturgical vestment worn during the Eucharist or Communion.

SAMSUNG

 

Calendar Collaboration

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As we near the end of the Easter season, I have a last set of Lenten calendars to share. Linda S. and her adult daughter collaborated on Advent calendars back in last December and decided to work together again during Lent. Since they had trouble choosing which Lenten calendar template to use, they decided to use all four! They each only worked on two of the calendars per day and swapped the calendars back and forth on a regular basis. Each calendar was a joint effort.

I love the idea of a prayer collaboration, of passing the calendars back and forth. Sounds like a prayer exercise for a prayer or church group or family. But why wait until next Advent or Lent? Use a simple calendar template for the month and pass it around among the members of your prayer/church group or members of your family.

Here is the explanation for each of their calendars:

  • The hexagon grid was where we prayed for individuals or groups. We were surprised at some of the people we felt compelled to pray for, but did our best not to ignore or judge those impulses.
  • The “path” grid that includes a few dates has words from the lectionary readings. However, we didn’t limit ourselves to the sequence, other than on the few dated shapes. We realize the words aren’t obvious and think in a few weeks even we won’t be able to identify all the words. One reads bottom to top rather than top to bottom and fools us repeatedly. Another, beginning with O, reads from outside to inside.
  •  Our spiral format is “anything goes” and we filled in without regard to sequence.
  • The calendar grid is also “anything goes” with the exception that each individual block has a black line that intersects each of its four borders. The lines don’t always go straight through from top to bottom, or side to side, but it is entertaining to follow them.

Linda--Lent Collage 1 resized

Linda--Lent Collage 2 resized

Expectancy, Not Expectation in Prayer

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When I began praying in color, I did it out of desperation. I was praying for almost a dozen people  in my life with terrible cancers and I was left wordless in prayer. Doodling, sitting dumbstruck, and just releasing my friends into God’s care were the only things I could do. After a dozen years of praying this way and with a retrospective eye, I see this way of praying as “being expectant” rather than “having expectations.”

Prayer, for me, has often meant a list of specific requests and the expectation of specific results: “Heal John.” “Make my kids do what I think they should do.” “Make me a nice person.” “Tell me exactly where to live and what to do with my life.” My prayers for healing and direction will be answered. Isn’t that the promise? “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7 (NIV) I don’t always–maybe not even often–get the direct, specific response I want.

Advent, my favorite season of the year, has taught me to be “expectant” rather than to have “expectations.” Though the roots of the words are the same, the first feels like an attitude of wide-eyed openness and humility rather than a sense of entitlement and arrogance that the second implies. “An expectation is a premeditated resentment” says the daily reader The Courage to Change on p.153. If I “expect” to get what I want, I may not just be bitterly disappointed, but also resentful. And when I expect specific results in prayer and don’t get what I ask, I resent God and sometimes even conclude that God does not exist. “Expectancy” helps me to honor the possibilities beyond my wants and my imagination. It bows before the wisdom and creativity of a Power way bigger than my puny, often self-focused mindset.

So when I doodle in prayer I try to let go of my expectations and trust God. “Here’s what I think I want, God; now it’s yours.” God knows the real needs and has marvelous things in mind for my friends and for me. “Healing always takes place,” says my priest friend Merry. “It just may look and feel different than we ever imagined.”

Expectancy resized