3 Lent

"Zeal for your temple will consume me" - that is what the disciples remembered~

I love this depiction of Jesus passionately cleaning out the temple - setting God's world free to make a place of light. Elizabeth+ gave us a visual of Jesus pouring out the coins and this image shows the coins flowing over the sides of the table onto the floor. What a mess! But when we declutter we always start by making a bigger mess!

E+ left us with the following question: Shall we let Jesus in to our temple to throw out what is in the way? After all, we are God's living temple.

2 Lent

What does this mean? Karen Pierce gives us some insight with the following: "Jesus is clear; surrender yourselves, your egos, your old earthly ways of being and thinking and you can begin to live."

Oh...What? Give up Control? Read more here.

Ash Wednesday

Stepping from the brightness of Epiphany

I enter an unfamiliar place called "Lent."

My eyes are slow to adjust to the change.

I blink back tears and stand still wondering

if my eyes are open or closed,

for nothing visible lies before me.

My senses tell me there are objects ahead--

prized places, sacred spaces.

There is no sense of urgency;

time has fallen away leaving

forty days and forty nights

to explore this unknown,

yet somehow familiar place;

touching, feeling, knowing holy moments.

-Mrs. Gretchen Olheiser

from Women's Uncommon Prayers

p. 290

2 Christmas

This is one of the many "views" of the Holy Family that I grew up with. They always looked so perfect (just look at Baby Jesus' posture!)

In this morning's sermon Margaret McGee reminded us of just how much our holy human families have in common with Joseph, and Mary, and Jesus.