Claimed, gathered and sent

Take a peek at this blog. Very interesting. The Necessity of Faith - Science and the Sacred Shared via AddThis flickr photo

Yesterday we celebrated two anniversaries. The first was our wedding anniversary. Six years ago yesterday Ray and I got married. It's been an awesome journey together so far, part of which brought us to our second anniversary. One year ago yesterday we were on our way to Gettysburg to begin seminary. Now the first year of seminary has been completed, including the crazy world of summer Greek which a new group of students will soon be experiencing. Teaching parish is done. Now my classmates and I are completing CPE and will be starting our second year of seminary. Many of of never would have imagined that this is where we'd be. I'm grateful for anniversaries, for those times to look back over the year or years and rejoice in God's grace in the blessings and the difficult times. "Great is thy faithfulness."

I first became acquainted with the hymn "God Be With You Till We Meet Again" at my home church in RI. It was while in the process of discernment, not long before I left for seminary. Since that time, I have found it to be evocative and laden with meaning. Shortly after CPE began, I discovered that this is a particularly meaningful hymn to this community as well. The last couple of weeks I have spent much of my time with the resident mentioned in my previous post.Walking and waiting with R and her daughters has been an amazing, life altering experience for me. Each time I went to her room, I had to listen carefully to what the Spirit was saying. Sometimes I thought I was going for Rand it ended up being for one or both of her daughters. Other times, like the last time I was with R, I initially thought I was there for her daughters. For a while I had been praying that God would take R home to be with God. Each day I would check and she was still with us, though that much cl...

My recent absence from blogging has not been because nothing is happening. Much is happening, but much of it is confidential. That which can be shared has taken some time for me to process before I could write about it. The last few weeks have been full of encounters of all kinds, events, and personal reflection. It has been a roller coaster ride full of tears and joy--moments of "Aha" and others of "Oh crap." Here is a bit of what can be shared. The retirement community I'm doing CPE in, being a chaplain this summer in, is a truly amazing place. Volunteers abound and those volunteers are residents of the retirement community. My weeks have consisted of times in one area to "Chat with the Chaplain." Wednesday mornings I do the devotions that are broadcast to all areas of the community. Friday mornings is a Bible study in memory support. Memory support encompasses a variety of abilities--some appear fully functional cognitively while others do not even ...

On Friday mornings, at CPE, I have a Bible study with the residents of one of the memory support areas of a retirement community. Today was the best ever. I had such a sense of God's presence with us. People that normally are not engaged in the singing were singing their hearts out. There was even joy in their eyes. The lesson was from Psalm 30 in The Message translation. Psalm 30 1 I give you all the credit, God— you got me out of that mess, you didn't let my foes gloat. 2-3 God, my God, I yelled for help and you put me together. God, you pulled me out of the grave, gave me another chance at life when I was down-and-out. 4-5 All you saints! Sing your hearts out to God! Thank him to his face! He gets angry once in a while, but across a lifetime there is only love. The nights of crying your eyes out give way to days of laughter. 6-7 When things were going great I crowed, "I've got it ma...

This is the message I preached at Bethany Village yesterday. I preached it 4 times in slightly different ways. This was the last one I preached at evening vespers. 7:00 Vespers Sermon How do you imagine God to be? What do you see when you pray? We all have different images of God we see in prayer, which are especially meaningful to us. I used to live in the Holy Land . From my window, I could watch a young shepherd with his sheep and goats. He loved and cared for them. He even played soccer with one of the goats. For me, the image of the Lord as my shepherd in Psalm 23 or Jesus ’ declaration in John 10, “I am the good shepherd,” are very rich and meaningful. Perhaps when you’re lonely or fearful, it is God almighty, the creator God who is your comfort, your protector. Our hymns and songs are full of pictures of God. God walks and talks with us IN THE GARDEN or maybe you see Jesus as the Lover of your soul. Someone living by the sea will have different images that ar...