Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est: A Lenten Meditation on Love

In the King James translation of the Bible, which many of us grew up with, I learned that “Now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” The modern translations substitute “love” for the Latin caritas. The word love takes on many meanings

for us, as in the great hymns of the church. Having spent my church life as a musician, both singer and instrumentalist, I find examples and interpretations of love in these hymns. Think about: Love’s redeeming work is done, Of the Father’s love begotten, Love came down at Christmas, Oh love, how deep, Love divine, all loves excelling for starters. You might enjoy meditating on the words of some of these found in our wonderful hymnal. If you don’t have a hymnal at home, go to the internet and pull them up.

“My song is love unknown” has powerful words that touch the heart: “love to the loveless shown that they might lovely be.”

If I have only one song to sing, however, it is Ubi caritas.

Here in Christ we gather, love of Christ our calling, 
Christ, our love, is with us, gladness be his greeting.
Let us fear and love him, holy God eternal,
Loving him, let each love Christ in one another.
When we Christians gather, members of one Body,
let there be in us no discord but one spirit.
Banished now be anger, strife and every quarrel,
Christ, our God, be always present here among us.
Grant us love’s fulfillment, joy with all the blessed,
when we see your face, O Savior, in its glory.
Shine on us, O purest Light of all creation,
be our bliss while endless ages sing your praises.

Laura Wells

Trust in the Slow Work of God

I wanted to share some words I first heard in 2019, a year of many transformations for me. In the days since, the words of Pierre Tielhard de Chardin have been sustaining and grounding for me, a reminder to trust God’s slow work and to surrender to divine timelines, which is an ongoing discipline for me.

“Above all, trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay. We should like to skip the intermediate stages. We are impatient of being on the way to something unknown, something new.

And yet it is the law of all progress that it is made by passing through some stages of instability— and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you; your ideas mature gradually—let them grow, let them shape themselves, without undue haste. Don’t try to force them on, as though you could be today what time (that is to say, grace and circumstances acting on your own good will) will make of you tomorrow.

Only God could say what this new spirit gradually forming within you will be. Give Our Lord the benefit of believing that his hand is leading you, and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself in suspense and incomplete.”

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, SJ

submitted anonymously

Faith: A Meditation

Faith: A small word that means many different things. If we use it as a noun then it can mean what religion we may practice, if any. If used as a verb, then it can mean the courage to speak up, the ability to not worry and be calm.

For most of us, we have all heard the saying, “your faith will see you through,” or “have faith,” or “let us have faith that...” All of these sayings have some sort of calm nature about them. How many times have we ourselves prayed for “faith” and courage (usually I say these two together) to get us through life’s many difficult times?

However, we are in a new year. Time to hit the “refresh” button. I wish it were that easy to do. So many times, in the last year and even in the last few days I have had to ask for help in strengthening my faith: faith in myself, faith in the world, even faith in my faith. Perhaps one of

my most favorite Bible passages talks about faith. Luke 17:6 says, “He replied, ‘If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea,” and it will obey you.’”That is a big job for such a teeny tiny seed.

I have tried to live my life as a tiny mustard seed. Never giving up, never losing hope, and never, ever failing to be amazed at God’s grace and mercy. He has seen me through a lot of tough times.

Let us never let go of our faith in each other. Together, just think what we can move!

Bernard Hufft

For God so Loved the World

The opening two verses of the Gospel reading for Thursday, 25 February 2021 ( John 3:16-21), are certainly well known: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Simple and straightforward isn’t it? Or so it initially seems. It is one of the most reassuring scriptural passages from my childhood — likely yours as well. It is almost of one piece with “Jesus loves me, yes I know, for the Bible tells me so.” God, through love, sent Jesus to save me. But that is not what it says. Scripture is never that simple.

We are just not called to a child-like me-focus here. The focus is broader than me; the focus is God’s human Incarnation into God’s first self-manifestation (incarnation) in creation. “God so loved the world. . .God did not send the Son. . .to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved.” And how is the world saved? It is saved by being deemed worthy of having the second incarnation of God’s love, the Jesus Incarnation, born into it. Living in it. Dying in it. What we are called to is an acceptance of the Incarnate God partaking in, and thereby sanctifying, the very world we find ourselves a part of. We are called upon to come to the light that has come into the world, the light that illuminates, colors, and consecrates creation and everything and everyone in it. Stepping into that light is no simple, much less childlike, endeavor. It calls for the emptying of self to make room for the fullness of the world.

Susan Hagen

Abide in Me

John 15:1, 6-16

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

Hey, Jesus, you are within me and beside me and behind me. Sometimes I don’t know where I am,
but I know where you are. Like a beauty contestant on stage asked to tell what she wishes for the world (usually world peace), I am asking for a Big One: Make the Coronovirus-19 Pandemic go away.

The pandemic has changed the world. I have the tee shirt, of course: It’s the end of the world as we
know it (and I feel fine). That’s from REM. Well, I don’t feel fine. So, please make it go away.

How has the pandemic affected me?
I stay home. A lot.
I don’t shop much. I could bake a pie if I had a pie crust.
I buy online and don’t get what I think I ordered.
Our tiny family unit of three has holidays with just us, unless you count the cats and dog.
I haven’t seen my only grandchild in over a year. I don’t go to church.
I don’t take communion.

Well, everybody has a list. Enough of January, already. Enough of the pandemic already.

Be with us.Be in us.And let us be with you and in you.

Faye Knopf

God Is King

The Psalmist exclaims, “God is King of all the earth; sing praises with all your skill.” (47:7). What comfort to reflect on the reminder that God is King as an ultimate truth set above God’s creation. This truth calls us to rest in the fact that though earthly powers change, shift, and falter sometimes, there is an ever constant in a changing world.

Recently, I have been listening to my neighbors who are distraught with the change in the U.S. Presidency. There is great fear and concern over elections and amid much manipulative propaganda, some are driven to despair. I have been reminded as I listen how great at times despair can control us and lead us into dark places. While listening to one neighbor, I felt a thought rise in my heart that could give hope. I paused and said to my neighbor, one thing remains in this darkness, God is still King. God’s power has not changed and is one of virtue and equity. As we shifted our thoughts away, momentarily, from the darkness around, we both began to feel peace. Fear and change can bring despair as to who is in control. God reminds us of an ever-constant maximum. Change is happening all around us, but God does not change and is there and in control, even when we don’t see it.

The Psalmist follows with “sing praises...” The natural outflow of an understanding that all will be well is to sing. All might not be well in the moment with the pandemic, civil unrest, and change of power, but “God is King.” Now we can lift our voices out of the darkness and sing to the heavens, lifting our hearts to God in affirmation with the Psalmist. This is the great uniter of our hearts. Community is built on common truth.

I found in that conversation with my neighbor that though we had differences, we both agreed with the Psalmist that “God reigns over the nations” (47:8). This simple but profound truth united me and my neighbor and began the repair of trust. We could together look beyond the despair of our times to the truth that “You, oh God, are the great constant in our changing world.” Now let’s sing!

Colby Galloway

Faith Is a Choice

Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him. John 2:11 (NRSV )

I am struck that they were already disciples at the wedding. There because he is — following him already — they see the water made wine, and then they believed in him? What did they think before? Belief seems a slippery thing, hard to define. They believe at the wedding, but what do they believe? Certainly, none would pass the simplest doctrinal test. The Nicene Creed would wholly escape them, as would the Apostles Creed, to say nothing of the Athanasian or the Chalcedon Definition. They wouldn’t even pass the test of non-creedal Baptists because they don’t believe in the New Testament — they can’t, because they haven’t written it yet.

Besides, is it clear that belief is all that, anyway? James says even the demons believe and tremble. Belief seems something you have, or you don’t. It doesn’t seem voluntary—at least I hope not, because then
my ability to believe is the measure of my potential for self-delusion. Whatever they believed, it was of other stuff than the trembling demons. Perhaps, the disciples have something closer to trust than belief as often understood. Or maybe, it is closer to faith. Faith is a choice, not an emotion we feel or a thought we have. Belief may be there or not, but our faith is a decision to act and to trust. Faith is a commitment that calls together our whole selves in an orientation

to life and the world. Doubt may be the opposite of belief, but is an essential part of faith, because it is an essential part of us.

Ed Higginbotham

Help Us Never to Forget...

Father in Heaven! You have loved us first, 
help us never to forget that You are love so that this sure conviction might triumph in our hearts

over the seduction of the world,

over the inquietude of the soul, over the anxiety for the future,

over the fright of the past,
over the distress of the moment.

But grant also that this conviction might discipline our soul
so that our heart might remain faithful and sincere
in the love which we bear to all those whom You have commanded us to love as we love ourselves.

~ Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855)

Michael Barnett

Loving My Neighbor

Sitting around the table at a virtual gathering, the discussion turned

to the recent insanity which erupted in Washington, D.C. A person whose walk with Christ has often seemed almost palpable to me, spoke out. About those who had attacked the capital, they said, “I find it very hard to love those people.” I knew that this mirrored my own mind and others. It was a notion that I was too fearful to acknowledge or voice.

Jesus said, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself ” and then asked “who is our neighbor?” Jesus follows up with the parable of the good Samaritan where we learn that our neighbor is everyone – including our enemies. The New Testament Greek word used here is agape. This is not erotic love, not playful, romantic love, not serious, familial love, nor earnest brotherly love. Agape is a love that does not come naturally, nor exist without effort. It is a love of good will and benevolence demanded by God and thus requires an act of the will. Very often it may be uncomfortable. For me it is a difficult love.

I remembered reading C.S. Lewis and here is what he had to say about neighborly love,

“ You are told to love your neighbor as yourself. How do you love yourself ? When I look into my own mind, I find that I do not love myself by thinking myself a dear old chap or having affectionate feelings. I do not think that I love myself because I am particularly good, but just because I am myself and quite apart from my character. I might detest something which I have done. Nevertheless, I do not cease to love myself. In other words, that definite distinction that Christians make between hating sin and loving the sinner
is one that you have been making in your own case since you were born. You dislike what you have done, but you don’t cease to love yourself. ..... You may even think that you ought to go to the Police and own up and be hanged. Love is not affectionate feeling, but a steady wish for the loved person’s ultimate good as far as it can be obtained.”

I like what Lewis had to say, but as English churchman Thomas Fuller once said, “All things are difficult before they are easy.”

Barry Ousley

Metaphysical Faith

One of the lectionary readings for this day is the 51st Psalm. This great penitential psalm has the liturgical honor of inaugurating our Lenten season yearly at Ash Wednesday, where it is chanted during the imposition of ashes, often to the celebrated, sobering setting by Allegri. To honor this psalm, I offer the following: one of the Holy Sonnets by John Donne. Donne, besides being an outstanding metaphysical poet, was dean of Old St. Paul’s, London. I have had the privilege of seeing his monument there, one of only a few to survive the Great Fire. The penitential nature of this sonnet echoes that of the psalm. Donne’s use of a conceit here exemplifies his place among the Metaphysical Poets. The tantalizing paradox at the conclusion is among the most indelible I have read. It has remained with me since I first encountered this work in high school. I recalled this in our Lenten study of these poets some years ago with Stanley Rich. Extraordinarily, penitence, suffering may flower into wisdom and intimacy with the Divine as Donne’s work so redolently unfolds.

Batter my heart, three person’d God, for you
As yet but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend; That I may rise and stand, o’erthrow me, and bend Your force to break, blow, burn, and make me new. I, like a usurp’d town, to another due
Labor to admit you, but oh, to no end;
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captiv’d, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be lov’d fain,
But am betroth’d unto your enemy;
Divorce me, untie or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

Ken Floyd

A Prayer of Hope

God of Hope who created us as dusty souls,

Help us to remember that our animated dust brings us life, consciousness, and communion with other dusty souls,
Help us to remember that our spirited dust gives us transcendence and that through our spirited dust we are surviving the global pandemic, Help us to understand our estranged dust and use our understanding towards forgiving ourselves and others during conflict,
And thank you God for providing us redeemed dust, supporting spiritual growth on our Hopeful journey together.
Amen.

Linda Foster

Faith, Hope, or (and) Love (for Ash Wednesday)

The Daily Readings for Today: Isaiah 58:1-12
Psalm 103
2 Corinthians 5:20-6:10 Matthew 6:1-6, 6:16-21

I pray faith, I pray hope, and I pray Love...

Since this past year has been a journey, one that has been fleeting, and at the same time seemed it would never end, let us pray for the world! We have endured a toxic political climate, societal division, stressful financial times, with fear rearing its ugly head due to uncertainty about this plague stalking our world, and what our future will look like in light of all this. How can we ever surmount this year of plague and turmoil? Sounds like some book from the Old Testament. Job comes to mind! However I turned to the New Testament and to John.

“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”

My weekly Cursillo reunion group has been a lifeline for me, I love these people! My parish has been a lifeline for me, I love these people! We as a Parish have a history of overcoming trials and tribulations! We are a community, a family, and together we will not only survive, but thrive. There are so many blessings to be thankful: Saint Andy’s pantry, the new GED prep program, Community Kitchens, tireless workers who dedicate their time and energy to the parish and community. This is my prayer for today. Let us find Faith, Hope, and Love.

I wish us Peace, and a joyful Lent! De Colores

Ty Walling

Welcome to Lent 2021

Here we are at Lent, those 40 days that start with Ash Wednesday and end on Easter. February 17 is fairly early for Ash Wednesday. Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday following the full Moon that occurs on or just after the spring equinox, so Easter in 2021 is on Sunday, April 7.

The day before Ash Wednesday has known by various names throughout history. When people used to forgo dairy products and
meat during Lent the day before the season started, they consumed all the milk and eggs. What better use for these ingredients than fried batter cakes? Thus, we now have “Pancake Tuesday.” Also the same lines, the word “carnival” in Latin means “farewell to meat.” All the meat was also devoured, making the day “Carnival Tuesday.” The devout asked to be shriven of their sins, and that is how we get “Shrove Tuesday.”

The Book of Common Prayer and our priests invite us: “in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God’s holy Word.” But Lent is really not about hair shirts, grave faces, and self-scourging. It can be an affirmative, strengthening spiritual season, when we can grow in love of God, self, and neighbors. People usually enjoy prayer and reading spiritual matter, but have a harder time fasting.

As our former priest Fr. Francis Walter used to instruct: for abstinence in the time of Lent, you lower the quality of food by eating less meat and rich foods. To fast, you don’t have to starve: you can lower the quantity of food by eating a small breakfast, one half-meal, and one full meal daily. The total time of Lent is really 46 days, but Sundays are weekly celebrations of the death and resurrection of Jesus. And so, on Sundays — considered days of joy — good Christians refrain from fasting.

In 2020, with the Covid-19 CoronaVirus pandemic, most of us went through nine-and-a-half months of self-denial, renunciation, self- sacrifice, and deprivation, which continues through the early months of 2021. This Lent, may we all find ways to joyfully repent, cheerfully pray, gladly abstain, hopefully fast, enthusiastically read, and hearteningly meditate.

Barbara Sloan, Lenten Book Editor

Thanks to Linda Foster who gathered the submissions this year, and to Elin Glenn who designed the book.