Author: Marjorie George

Gathered Wisdom, July 28

Marjorie George

A weekly collection of inspiration and resources for the journey, gathered from websites, books, and pass-alongs that have been shared with us. From Spirituality in the Wisdom Years.

A Blessing for Old Age

By John O’Donohue

May the light of your soul mind you,
May all your worry and anxiousness about becoming old be transfigured,
May you be given a wisdom with the eye of your soul,
to see this beautiful time of harvesting.
May you have the commitment to harvest your life,
to heal what has hurt you, to allow it to come closer to you and become one with you.
May you have great dignity, may you have a sense of how free you are,
And above all may you be given the wonderful gift of meeting the eternal light and beauty that is within you.
May you be blessed, and may you find a wonderful love in yourself for yourself.

From the book To Bless the Space Between Us

This Week

Turning Prayer into Action

Maybe we can’t do all of the things we used to do before the pandemic, but Bishop Michael Curry says there are many things we can do. It is our prayer that will lead us to the right actions, he says in this week’s Habits of Grace video.  Bishop  Curry, the thoroughly delightful and deeply spiritual leader of the Episcopal Church, posts a video meditation every week as we travel through this pandemic. The meditations can be watched at any time by clicking here.

For more about Michael Curry, from The Episcopal Church 

When What is Precious is Taken From You

“Perhaps the reality that is hardest of all to accept in life is the unalterable fact that everything that is precious to us will, in some way, eventually be taken away,” says Fr. Ron Rolheiser of Oblate Seminary. “We are left wondering what we really believe in and what really can be trusted,” he says. Read the essay.

From: Fr. Ron’s blog

Retreating Where You Are

You kept telling yourself you would take a retreat day, but now you really are out of excuses. “Retreat, at heart, is simply about making ourselves available to God,” say the brothers at Society of St. John the Evangelist.  What better time than while we are confined to home and our calendars are empty. The brothers have created an outline of a simple and possible “retreat in place” day from preparation to conclusion. Access it here.

From: Society of St. john the Evangelist. 

Listen!

Learning to listen is a lifelong journey that starts with the healing of the wounds that get in the way, says Heather Plett, an author and blogger who is particularly committed to the concept of “holding space.” In this article, she discusses learning to listen to those who are closest to her – her three grown children. Read it.

From: Heather Plett blog

As It Is: Spiritual Journaling e-course

Led by Judith Favor from Spirituality and Practice
Monday, August 3 – Friday, August 28

This course on spiritual journaling starts with three words from the Lord’s Prayer  – as it is – to invite deep questions about today’s world. Through contemplative writing, participants will get practice in recognizing and responding to their relationship with God, self, others, nature, work, and society just “as it is.” For more information.

From: Spirituality and Practice 

Gathered Wisdom is from Spirituality in the Wisdom Years, a ministry that invites older adults to deepening spirituality in the last third of their lives. If someone forwarded this to you, learn more about Spirituality in the Wisdom Years and subscribe to the site at
ww.wisdomyears.org.

If you have something to add to Gathered Wisdom, send it to Marjorie George at
marjoriegeorge62@gmail.com

Gathered Wisdom, July 21

Marjorie George

A weekly collection of inspiration and resources for the journey, gathered from websites, books, and pass-alongs that have been shared with us. From Spirituality in the Wisdom Years.

There is an old story about a man who wrote to the department of agriculture in his state to find out how to cope with the crabgrass that was spoiling his lawn. The department responded with a number of suggestions. The man tried them all, but he could not completely eliminate the crabgrass. Exasperated, he wrote the department again, noting that every method they had suggested had failed. His yard was still riddled with crabgrass.
He got back a short reply: “We suggest you learn to love it.”
That is the art of reframing, redefining something so that it is no longer as problematic. It isn’t the situation that is changed, of course; it is your perspective on the situation.

— Robert and Jeanette Lauer in Watersheds: Mastering Life’s Unpredictable Crises by Robert and Jeanette Lauer

To Practice This Thought:
Examine an old and persistent problem from a new angle.

Discover more wisdom and practices at
SpiritualityandPractice.com

This Week

Ten More Commandments

Drawing from all that is best from Judeo-Christian scripture, and especially from the wisdom and example of Jesus, Fr. Ron Rolhesier, president of Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, has pulled together Ten Commandments for Mature Living. Read it in a lovely booklet created by Shari Guilfoile of Everyday Faith.

From: Everyday Faith 

Tai Chi Helps

A study of 670 older adults, all of whom were at increased risk of falling, reduced their risk by 58 percent after taking Tai Chi classes, as reported in the May/June 2019 issue of Arthritis Today magazine. Tai Chi appears to be more effective in reducing fall risk than other forms of stretching, balance, flexibility and strengthening exercises. When they did fall, participants in the study were less likely to suffer serious injury. Terry Gay Puckett, who recommends and teaches Tai Chi Chih, suggests looking for online Tai Chi Chih classes with Justin Stone.  Find them here.

From: Terry Gay Puckett. To learn more about Tai Chi Chih, contact Terry Gay.

Falling Silent

Essay by Gerard Thomas Straub.  In his book No Man Is an Island, Thomas Merton wrote: “There must be a time of day when the man who makes plans forgets his plans, and acts as if he had no plan at all.  There must be a time of day when the man who has to speak falls very silent. And his mind forms no more propositions, and he asks himself: Did they have any meaning?
Read the rest of the essay by clicking on the download box below

falling-silent-by-straubDownload

From: Bridges to Contemplative Living with Thomas Merton Advent and Christmas, 2010, edited by Jonathan Montaldo and Robert G. Toth, published by Ave Maria Press.  

The Long Distance Movie Club

A pair of young people in New York have come up with a genius idea for bringing isolated seniors together – watch old movies and talk about them in online discussions. Watch the video about the Long Distance Movie Club, then think about how you could apply this in your congregation.  

From: Happify Daily. Happify.com

Where to find old movies

Using Zoom

Older adults are finding they can connect with friends, attend book studies, and go to webinars online using Zoom. If you are new to Zoom, here are some videos to get you started. Or call a grandchild.

From the Creative Life Center (our favorite)

From AARP 

From Zoom

If you have something to add to Gathered Wisdom, send it to Marjorie George at
marjoriegeorge62@gmail.com

Gathered Wisdom is from Spirituality in the Wisdom Years, a ministry that invites older adults to deepening spirituality in the last third of their lives. If someone forwarded this to you, learn more about Spirituality in the Wisdom Years and subscribe to the site at
ww.wisdomyears.org.

Gathered Wisdom, July 14

Marjorie George

A weekly collection of inspiration and resources for the journey, gathered from websites, books, and pass-alongs that have been shared with us. From Spirituality in the Wisdom Years.

I Worried

I worried a lot. Will the garden grow, will the rivers
flow in the right direction, will the earth turn
as it was taught, and if not how shall
I correct it?

Was I right, was I wrong, will I be forgiven,
can I do better?

Will I ever be able to sing, even the sparrows
can do it and I am, well,
hopeless.

Is my eyesight fading or am I just imagining it,
am I going to get rheumatism,
lockjaw, dementia?

Finally I saw that worrying had come to nothing.
And gave it up. And took my old body
and went out into the morning,
and sang.”

― Mary Oliver

From: Swan: Poems and Prose Poems

This Week

First Half/Second Half

In the first half of life, says Fr. Richard Rohr, we are rightly concerned with establishing our identity in the world. Rohr calls it building a “container.” But in the second half of life, we finally must decide what the container was meant to hold if we are to complete the life to which we are called. The two halves of life are the subject of Rohr’s 2011 book Falling Upward. He re-visits the topic in his daily meditations for March 17-22, 2019. Access each day’s offering from the end-of-week summary.  Suggestion: read one a day for a week; take 15 minutes to think about it.

From: Center for Action and Contemplation

Living COVID Like a Monk

Fr. Ron Rolheiser’s 10 suggestions for getting through the aloneness of the COVID pandemic come from watching and knowing monks. His thoughts, he says, are the fruit of living in the give-and-take of a religious community for 50 years. Read Some Secrets Worth Knowing. 

From: Fr. Ron Rolheiser’s blog

Shut Out by the Pandemic

A 95-year-old woman in San Antonio is the longest-tenured election judge in the Bexar County Elections Department.  She couldn’t work the July primary runoff election thanks to the pandemic. Once an airplane mechanic, in her retirement she has always kept busy, these days sewing masks for anyone who needs one.  Read the story of this inspirational 95-year-old..

From: The Rivard Report

The Tragic Gap – a podcast

Can we stand in that place between the present hard realities and what we know is possible? Parker Palmer calls it The Tragic Gap – we see it, for instance, when we witness outrageous greed in our society but also see examples of extraordinary generosity for our neighbor. How can we as elders stand in that gap in our homes, in our communities, in our nation? Listen to the podcast.

From: The Center for Courage and Renewal

Eight Gates to Elderhood

“Becoming a Wise Elder” e-course is part of the Elder Spirituality Project from Spirituality & Practice. The course recognizes that the demands of elderhood are far different from those of earlier years and presents eight gates through which elders must pass. In the online course, participants work at their own speed and frequency. Learn more about the course here.

From: Spirituality and Practice

Gathered Wisdom is from Spirituality in the Wisdom Years, a ministry that invites older adults to deepening spirituality in the last third of their lives. If someone forwarded this to you, learn more about Spirituality in the Wisdom Years and subscribe to the site at
ww.wisdomyears.org.

If you have something to add to Gathered Wisdom, send it to Marjorie George at
marjoriegeorge62@gmail.com

Gathered Wisdom for July 7

Marjorie George

A weekly collection of inspiration and resources for the journey, gathered from websites, books, and pass-alongs that have been shared with us. From Spirituality in the Wisdom Years.

There is No Going Back

No, no, there is no going back.
Less and less you are that possibility you were.
More and more you have become those lives and deaths
that have belonged to you. You have become a sort of grave
containing much that was and is no more in time,
beloved then, now, and always.
And so you have become a sort of tree standing over a grave.
Now more than ever you can be generous toward each day that comes, young,
to disappear forever, and yet remain unaging in the mind.
Every day you have less reason not to give yourself away. 

 – Wendell Berry, from “Collected Poems”

This Week

Quieting Your Soul – a podcast

This enlightening podcast is for everyone who is an “over” – over-achiever, over-controller, over-perfectionist. Listen for yourself or pass on to others.  Nathan Foster of Renovare interviews Lane Cohee, author of the new book The Disquieted Soul.  Listen here. https://renovare.org/podcast/lane-cohee-the-disquieted-soul

From: Renovare, a Chris­t­ian non­prof­it founded by Richard J. Foster, author of Celebration of Discipline. renovare.org

When Old and Young Connect

Older and younger people benefit each other. When teenagers in the Big Brothers and Big Sisters program were coupled with older mentors, they experienced a 46 percent difference in drug use, a 50 percent difference in school truancy, and a 33 percent difference in violent behavior compared to teens who did not have mentors. The older mentors were three times as likely to be happy than older adults who are not mentors. Read the article. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/what_happens_when_old_and_young_connect

From: the Greater Good Science Center https://ggsc.berkeley.edu/who_we_are

Steady Spirituality

Everything in our spirituality doesn’t have to be moving forward all the time. Sometimes we need to be in maintenance mode, remembering that the spiritual journey is a marathon, not a sprint. “Good spiritualities don’t put you on a universal conveyor belt, the same road for everyone, but take into account what you need to do to maintain your energy and sanity on a marathon journey,” says Fr. Ron Rolheiser, president of Oblate Seminary in San Antonio. Read the full article.
https://ronrolheiser.com/ascending-descending-and-just-keeping-steady

From: Ron Rolheiser,OMI. ronrolheiser.com

At-Home Retreat

While you are stuck inside, carve out some intentional time to get quiet and be with God.  Br. Luke Ditewig of Society of St John the Evangelist suggests several ways to do it.  
https://www.ssje.org/2020/04/29/retreat-at-home-during-coronavirus/

From: Society of St. John the Evangelist ssje.org

From Age-ing to Sage-ing – a workshop

Awakening the Sage Within online workshop introduces the concepts promoted by Sage-ing International and based on the work of Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi in his book From Age-ing to Sage-ing. “Sage-ing”  is a model for engaging more deliberately, more joyfully and more compassionately as we grow older. Practices center on personal growth and service as one grows into becoming an “elder.” The course will meet online three Tuesdays in August. Learn about Sage-ing International and the course. http://events.r20.constantcontact.com/register/event?oeidk=a07eh1x2idff9685403&llr=thw4kyfab

Investigate Sage-ing as Spiritual Practice
https://www.sage-ing.org/about/sage-ing-as-a-spiritual-practice/

Listen

We need to be careful about judging the old ones when we talk. At first they may not make sense to us. Maybe we’ll say they’re old fashioned and don’t understand. But the old ones do understand! When they speak, listen very carefully. Often it will take weeks or maybe even years before we understand what they are really saying. This is the way of Wisdom. We need to listen, listen, listen.

from Meditations with Native American Elders: The Four Seasons

Gathered Wisdom is from Spirituality in the Wisdom Years, a ministry that invites older adults to deepening spirituality in the last third of their lives. If someone forwarded this to you, learn more about Spirituality in the Wisdom Years and subscribe to the site at
ww.wisdomyears.org.

If you have something to add to Gathered Wisdom, send it to Marjorie George at
marjoriegeorge62@gmail.com

New in your Email

Marjorie George

Good morning, all who follow Spirituality in the Wisdom Years. You should have received in your email inbox this morning the first edition of Gathered Wisdom, a weekly collection of articles, resources, prayers, poems, and other insights that are worth passing along.

We invite you to contribute to this effort – if you read it or watch it or hear it and think “this is really good . . .” please send it to me at marjoriegeorge62@gmail.com.

I welcome your feedback.

With prayers for the health and safety of all of us in this hard time,

Marjorie

Gathered Wisdom

Marjorie George

To know the guidance of God’s Spirit, you need to be still and silent. In the cadence of your day, create some enclosures of silence where you pause and breathe and are really present to God’s presence.
-Br. Curtis Almquist, SSJE.
Learn more about the Society of Saint John the Evangelist

This Week

Students and Seniors use Technology to Cure Loneliness

In this time of increased isolation for older people, a group of students from Austin has created “video pals” with seniors. Both age groups benefit as they connect across the generations. Watch the video.
Found in Happify Daily https://my.happify.com

How the Daily News Increases Anxiety and what to do About It

If you feel yourself caught up in a cycle of fear, anger, and despair as you digest all the latest news of a world and people in crisis, you owe it to yourself and the world to be kind to yourself and take a break says Brother Nicholas Bartoli of the Society of St. John the Evangelist. Now is the time for elders to be peacemakers of themselves and those in their families. Read the article.
From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

Leaving Peace as our Final Gift

There is a way of dying that leaves peace behind, says Fr. Richard Rolheiser, president of Oblate Seminary in San Antonio. That peace involves harmony and completeness. Read Leaving Peace Behind as our Farewell Gift from Father Ron’s blog.

Volunteering Without Leaving Home

Older adults are called to be blessings, but in this time of sheltering at home, that can be hard to do. The Volunteer Match program offers ways to volunteer from home. Read 10 Ways to Volunteer from Home from the Volunteer Match blog.

A Walking Meditation

We can still get out and walk during this crisis, and in fact that’s one of the best things we can do for our bodies and our minds. Walking has been shown to decrease depression and increase energy. Author Angeles Arrien invites us to “honor sacred time” with a walking meditation. Read Developing the Inner Visionary at Spirituality and Practice.

A Prayer for Uncertain Times

God of infinite mercy, hear our prayer!

In this time of bewilderment and fear, we ask you to give us the courage to take care of one another as Jesus did. 
For those who are ill, especially those who are frightened and alone, for those who cannot access healthcare, for those who are homeless and lost, 
hear our prayer! 

In the midst of our sadness and grief, we ask you to give us words to comfort one another. 
For those who are dying, and for those who have already died from this virus, for those who tend them and for those with no one to tend them, 
hear our prayer!

In the midst of our own anxiety we ask you to give us the courage to support one another as you would. 
For those who are unexpectedly unemployed, for employers who share what they can, for our government and financial institutions and those who lead them, 
hear our prayer!

In the midst of our struggle to ensure a healthy future for all who live on this planet, we ask you to give us the hope that surpasses our current understanding. 
For healthcare workers, spiritual leaders and our faith communities, for artists and poets, for prophets and teachers, 
hear our prayer!

In the midst of our growing awareness that all life on Earth is connected, we ask for the heart to respect and cherish all life. That all peoples recognize that we are all your children, 
hear our prayer!

We trust in you and your power working in us. Please hear and answer our prayers. Amen. – Sister Cynthia Serjak

From the newsletter of Contemplative Life Bookstore, June 14, 2020 www.contemplative-life.org

Gathered Wisdom is from Spirituality in the Wisdom Years, a ministry that invites older adults to deepening spirituality in the last third of their lives. If someone forwarded this to you, learn more about Spirituality in the Wisdom Years and subscribe to the site at
ww.wisdomyears.org.

If you have something to add to Gathered Wisdom, send it to Marjorie George at
marjoriegeorge62@gmail.com

Blessings and Burdens

Blessings and Burdens

Marjorie George

The Gift of Years is a book for those of us who don’t feel old, whatever our chronological age, but who one day realize with a kind of numbing astonishment that we have not managed to elude aging. We are now called “seniors” or “elders” or “the older generation,” even “elderly” by the young ones around us, despite the fact that we feel no different now than we did a year ago.

Inside we know ourselves to be coming out of one part of life and going into another -clinging to one but unable to stop ourselves from slipping into the other. And we don’t know quite what to think about it. Is this the end of everything we know to be good and fulfilling in life?

That depends on whether or not we know what to look for as the later years come, says author Joan Chittister. The Gift of Years teaches us how to embrace the blessings of this time and navigate the burdens. It is time to understand that the last phase of life is not non-life; it is a new stage of life.

This online book study meets weekly
beginning Thursday, July 2,
4 to 5:15 p.m.
Participants will read 2 chapters each week on their own,
gather for a brief intro using Zoom software,
then break into Zoom discussion groups of 6 to 8.
The initial study runs for 6 weeks but will continue if the group wishes.

No cost for this study.

To indicate interest and learn more details, email to Marjorie George at marjoriegeorge62@gmail.com.

This online study is one of our Wisdom Circles — companions who come together around a particular topic to share the blessings and the challenges of the older-adult years. Lean more about Wisdom Circles here.

Now is the Time for Elders

Now is the Time for Elders

Marjorie George

by Paul Pineda

After the chaos and the incessant bombardment of twenty-four-hour news has rained upon us, it is time for us elders to assume our place in this time.  Our loved ones are frightened by the pandemic at our doorstep.

Our people need our wisdom that comes from having lived through our own personal and communal experiences.  In their song Grandpa, Tell me ‘bout the Good Old Days, the Judds ask not for hard facts but about what gave people hope.

Children are asking older siblings, and they are asking their parents.  And parents are looking to us to share of what we remember.  And what we remember was the communal fear and, most importantly, we share the communal sense of relief as our lives returned to normal in past crises.  

As silly as it may sound, the “truths” that grounded my life as a youngster were three constants: a President (Eisenhower) and a Pope (Pius XII) and a Catholic Bishop in my home town (Garriga).  These men were “in charge,” and all was right in my world.  Yet, within a span of five years (1958-1963), these markers were changed in my universe.

Our country was buffeted about by the turbulent Sixties, with its Vietnam War, and the deaths of Kennedy and King. By the end, I remember feeling wrung out by the battering winds of change.  Natural and man-made disasters have also touched our lives.

I connect the dots of my experiences like a rosary that has been my life.

Yet, I want to believe that whatever wisdom I may have as an elder is having learned by connecting the dots.  I connect the dots of my experiences like a rosary that has been my life.  I do not mean to oversimplify life, but I do know that our fear of the unknown plays a great part in how we respond to difficult news.  If I stop and remember the pieces of my life, as I am able to patch together the sameness in each of these events, I am able to see hope. 

And so, it is in times like this that our purpose as elders is to provide hope for those who may not see their own hope.  We are called upon to teach the ancient wisdom of connecting the dots as a way of saying with Julian of Norwich, “All shall be well, and all shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.”

Paul Pineda is part of the working group that guides the Spirituality for the wisdom Years ministry. Reach Paul at episcopalnfa@gmail.com.

Placeholders

Placeholders

Marjorie George

In her book The Grace in Aging, Kathleen Dowling Singh calls elders to be placeholders in society.  “There is no more noble way to spend these years,” she says, “than to become an elder, to bear witness to the world as placeholders for peace, love, wisdom and fearlessness” (pg 24).

And we elders can do that with integrity, I think, because we have the goods to back it up. We have been here before.

I find myself these days wishing that my mother were still alive so I could ask her about rationing in World War II when she had two toddlers and a husband off on a Navy ship somewhere in the Pacific.  I want to know more about the Polio epidemic of the 1940s and 1950s beyond my recollection of standing in line as a 10-year-old to receive a magical vaccine on a sugar cube that had been discovered by Jonas Salk. I only know I could sense the collective and joyous sigh of relief from the parents around me. But what was it like before that, Mom?  What were your fears for your own children?  How did you protect them? 

(Perhaps it is not coincidental that Salk announced his breakthrough on March 26, 1953. Although the vaccine saved millions of lives, Salk did not patent his discovery. In a famous television interview with Edward R. Murrow, when Murrow asked Salk who owns the patent on the vaccine, Salk replied, “Well, the people I would say. There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?”)

From my own history I recall the frightening days of the Kennedy assassination when my husband and I were living overseas in a country whose language we did not speak because he was in the Air Force. Days when we had no television to give us hourly updates of whatever was happening back home. Days when we worried for our parents and the state of the nation. 

On the bulletin board in my home office I refer more often lately to a clipping from the daily meditations of the Society of St. John the Evangelist: “There have been things in your life that have been dark and difficult and you’ve come through it, given the grace to face it, and are probably stronger and wiser for it . . . Remember from what you have already been saved” (post from Oct 31, 2016).

Remember and tell others. Remember and pray for courage.  Remember and pass on the stories of your own heritage. Harvest your history. Share peace, love, wisdom and fearlessness, even in a time when we elders are the most susceptible to the evil that surrounds us.  Hold a place and open a space for God’s spirit to offer reassurance to those who do not have the gift of long memories as do we. 

Be a placeholder now in whatever way you can.

And may God bless us and save us all.

– Marjorie George

And a special invitation: If you are not already receiving posts from the Diocese of West Texas adult Christian formation site where we are currently posting a study of the psalms, you can subscribe to receive the posts in your email at www.christianformation-dwtx.org.  

Borrowed Wisdom

Borrowed Wisdom

Marjorie George

Julie Chalk, a member of the working group that guides the ministry of Spirituality for the Wisdom Years, shares this from a cousin in Seattle. The writer is Cherry Haisten, Lay Pastor and Contemplative Ministries Coordinator for The Center at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church, Seattle. saintandrewsseattle.org

The Gift of Unexpected Silence

The silence on a weekday morning in Seattle is eerie. It’s like the days after a blizzard when traffic comes to a standstill. Except, of course, you don’t hear the gleeful voices of children on unscheduled holiday building snowmen and throwing snowballs. Except, of course, it’s not a snow day. At my house, behind the busy shopping stretch of 15th Avenue East, the sounds of delivery trucks and the clanks of drivers unloading flats of goods are far less frequent than usual. Fewer planes seem to be flying their usual route over our roof. Photos on national news show empty streets downtown. The silence is eerie. We’re not used to it. Yet, as my teacher, Fr. Thomas Keating, reminded us, “Silence is God’s first language.” Maybe this unusual, seemingly unnatural, silence gives us the opportunity to re-acquaint ourselves with God’s profound language, in fact, to get back in touch with God, who often gets crowded out of our lives by the noise of business and activity. When we practice centering prayer or another wordless form, it’s a rare benefit if that prayer time is supported by silence.
 
Noise fills our families, our workplaces, our shopping places, and even our worship places. Our culture is generally uncomfortable with silence. It’s so unusual that even in the church it rarely crosses people’s minds that anyone might be sitting in a chapel or some relatively quiet corner in silent prayer. Gone are the days when children were conditioned to drop their voices to a reverent hush when entering the sacred space of the sanctuary. Enforcing a rule of silence around us when we practice silent prayer is hardly conceivable. We shouldn’t even try.
 
In our prayer time, and maybe sometimes in our daily lives, we are “listening below the noise,” in the title words of Anne D. LeClaire’s book on the transformative power of silence. We are developing interior silence, letting go of the noise inside our own heads, in order to be able to hear God with the ears of our hearts. Let those who have ears hear, as Jesus said. I think he meant the ears of the heart. Hearing God may necessitate some subtle listening through the ears of the heart, some inner attuning to the delicate and gentle communications of the Spirit within us. Silence provides the language lab for that kind of listening. 

When I thought we would hold our traditional quiet morning at St. Mark’s last Saturday, I wrote that having that brief three-and-a-half hours for silence and prayer was a luxury. Well, the coronavirus has given us at least one gift to be thankful for—the luxury of less frantic activity, less noise, and more time to spend practicing God’s first language. As Lynn Ungar suggests in her poem “Pandemic,” let’s consider this a sabbath, “the most sacred of times.” How cosmically appropriate that it should happen during Lent when we are called to “rend our hearts and not our garments and return to our God, for the Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” (Joel 2:13) 

Let’s embrace this unexpected Lenten opportunity to rend our hearts, enter more deeply into the silence, and return to God, knowing that the Infinite Divine holds and upholds us always without ceasing, through the noise and the silence, and through every unexpected turn in our lives. God is holding us even now, inviting us to let go of all anxiety and lie back to rest in those infinitely loving arms. With prayers for healing and health and blessings for this holy Lent………