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being together, family, heart, joy, rejoice, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, vacation, wonderful
Today I anticipate joy in abundance. If you read yesterday’s post you’re probably thinking I’m referencing the acclamation: This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us be glad and rejoice in it! I must admit I was relieved that I remembered to say it to myself when I got out of bed this morning. If nothing else, I ought to practice what I preach! But I digress!
In an hour or two I will get in my car and drive to Massachusetts with the goal of arriving in no more than six hours – maybe less if conditions are right – at the neighborhood of my childhood memories. My young, beautiful cousin, Molly, is to be married today to Dan, who seems the perfect addition to our family. In itself, that event will certainly be a joy but add to it the opportunity to spend time with cousins of three generations and I can imagine nothing better. There is lots of love that binds us and surely the spirits of our parents will be with us. I heard recently that Molly’s wish was to be married ‘in Grandmother’s church” and so it shall happen!
The added bonus to all this comes at its conclusion, however. Because my brother and sister-in-law will be here, my sister has engineered a plan for us to spend the week together – something that hasn’t happened for the past five years! It is a fact of life now that siblings routinely live at a distance from each other – 3,000 miles of distance for us: Cape Cod, MA to San Diego, CA! It is quite difficult in our case so I am sure today that the saying “what’s seldom is wonderful” will be our experience this week. The plan is simple: just being together!
In the spirit of being “all in” to the experience, I am planning to be as present as possible with little interference. Thus, in a rare moment of self-care, I plan to take a vacation from writing this blog until Monday, April 16th. Wish me luck in letting it go, if you will. Perhaps there is something that you ought to take a vacation from…or maybe you simply ought to ask the question today of what you have not done in awhile that gives you the kind of joy that makes your heart sing. That’s where you’ll find me this week!
It has not escaped my notice that each day since the vigil of Easter the gospel acclamation has been the same verse. From Psalm 118:24 we hear or read, This is the day the Lord has made; let us be glad and rejoice in it. This morning I think I finally got the intended message.
There seem to be lots of reasons to get moving this morning and greet the day with anticipation. The reasons don’t come from the outside; the day (as much as I can determine it from the vantage point of my bedroom window) is looking rather dismal. But the lectionary readings declare the truth that the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord and the verse before the gospel shouts out the recognition that this is the day that the Lord has made! Rather like “Wake up!” or “Don’t miss it!” that declarative is followed with the imperative: Let us be glad and rejoice in it!
The waiting is over. Prepared or not we acknowledge that Christ comes today to each of us and all of us, calling our hearts to a love that is as divine as it is human, drawing us forth in the humility of one born like us while at the same time offering us riches beyond our comprehension, if only we agree to pour ourselves out in generosity of spirit. The paradox is that this gift to the Christ can be given in the smallest of ways: each day a smile or a kind word to someone starving for affection, ten minutes of silence to heal a noisy world or…name your own offering of light. Every gift is acceptable to the Christ. Now it is He who is waiting for us. Let us rejoice and give thanks!
Today begins the final countdown to our celebration of the Incarnation of Jesus at Christmas. It is, I think, as significant as it is unusual that today is both Gaudete Sunday – the call to Rejoice! – as well as the day when we begin to hear the O Antiphons, those short chants sung as refrains, at vespers, the evening prayer of the Church.
Sometimes opportunity is so fleeting that we easily miss it if we aren’t paying attention. Take, for example, the coming of light to the sky. That’s something that happens every morning so it’s often taken for granted. Today, because of the shift to Daylight Saving Time, I was happy to see that it was in process as I started the trek downstairs for my coffee. Had I not been paying attention when I sat to write on my return I would have missed a breathtaking red sky whose glory dissipated within two minutes. I was almost too busy reading Paul’s staccato-like advice to the Romans in chapter 12 to look out the window. Both “feasts for the eyes” were worthy of a pause.
Here in Windsor we are in the midst of a four-day Wisdom School whose theme is Visionary Seeing. I just read Nan Merrill’s translation of Psalm 105 and found it quite appropriate for this middle day, giving us impetus to wake up to new and deeper ways of knowing. I thought it worthy of consideration for a broader audience as well so here is a lovely modern rendition of PS 105:1-6 in paragraph form. It is especially the last line that seems to me consonant with visionary seeing.
