John Donne: A good Anglican saint!

It was hard to pick from my favorite Donne poetry, but thought this one was appropriate during Lent.


DEATH be not proud, though some have called thee

Mighty and dreadful, for, thou art not so,

For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost overthrow,

Die not, poor death, nor yet canst thou kill me.

From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be,

Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must flow,

And soonest our best men with thee do go,

Rest of their bones, and souls delivery.

Thou art slave to Fate, Chance, kings, and desperate men,

And dost with poison, war, and sickness dwell,

And poppie, or charmes can make us sleep as well,

And better then thy stroke; why swell'st thou then;

One short sleep past, we wake eternally,

And death shall be no more; death, thou shalt die.


Scripture for his Day:
"...Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life." John 5:19-24


Almighty God, the root and fountain of all being: Open our eyes to see, with your servant John Donne, that whatever has any being is a mirror in which we may behold you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

More on Donne: http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/35.html

Pre-Holy Week Spring Cleaning

The Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday following Palm Sunday are a traditional time of cleaning.

"Just as the house is cleaned during Advent in preparation for Christmas, and just as Shrovetide is spent cleaning in preparation for Lent, these days are spent in preparation of the greatest Feast of the Church year: the Feast of Easter. By Wednesday night, the house should be spotless so that the days of the Sacred Triduum (Holy Thursday, Friday, and Saturday) can be devoted to Christ's Passion."

It makes sense, doesn't it?


1. Spring is here and we can finally open windows to air things out.

2. Cleaning is a task that you can spend in prayer and quiet to prepare for the somber days ahead.

4. For those of you who hate cleaning, the hard work pales in light of Christ's suffering!

5. The house is ready for guest and celebration on Sunday.

6. A fitting metaphor for the work of the cross and the resurrection: all things are made new!



My goals for cleaning (that to truly accomplish I will need to start now):

1. Thorough dusting/vacuuming-under beds and furniture, behind radiators, crown molding, books in book cases, chandelier, lamp shades.

2. Windows and Blinds. (Since we've only been in this house less than a year, I'm not even thinking about the curtains!)

3. Refrigerator, oven, pantry. Ready for major feast cooking and guests!

4. Go through winter clothing and get out spring clothes. Decide what needs to be donated, bought, packed away.

5. Prep Easter outfits, tights, shoes, jackets. Prep Easter baskets. Prep Easter decorations to come out after Easter Vigil.

6. Flip mattresses, change winter comforters to spring/summer quilts.

7. The attic-we've just moved here this past July and the attic has never been organized; it's more like a dumping ground for anything that doesn't have a home. I hesitate to even add it to my list! I hesitate to even go up there most days!

8. Polish silver and check china for Sunday.

9. Linen closet/medicine cabinet de-cluttered.

10. Keep up with all normal tidying, laundry, dishes, diapering, feeding...

What am I forgetting? Do you try to do your Spring Cleaning in one major day/weekend? What should I add to the list?

Sabbath Poem- A Call to Wait

Milton always believed he possessed great powers for which God would hold him responsible. He believed he would write an immortal poem but sacrificied his eyesight during England's Civil War.

This poem is his response to that; one in which I find great comfort when I'm particularly feeling the smallness of my world and question if my "talent...lodged with me useless." Patience' answer is not one we hear often anymore in this age of self-esteem and self-acutalization: "God doth not need either [Amy's] work or [her] gifts." I will serve Him best when I "bear his mild yoke...and wait."

Milton went on to write Paradise Lost, considered by many the greatest poem in the English language, dictating to his daughter since he could no longer write.

Hoping we may find the courage today to stop all of our busyness even when the cares of the world are heavy upon us and our to-do list long, remembering that "his State is Kingly: thousands at his bidding speed...without rest." Whatever we may think is so important we must accomplish it today, our job on this Lord's Day is to find comfort and rest in Him.

Now enough of me, the poem:

On His Blindness by John Milton

WHEN I consider how my light is spent

E're half my days, in this dark world and wide,

And that one Talent which is death to hide,

Lodg'd with me useless, though my Soul more bent

To serve therewith my Maker, and present

My true account, least he returning chide,

Doth God exact day-labour, light deny'd,

I fondly ask; But Patience to prevent

That murmur, soon replies, God doth not need

Either man's work or his own gifts, who best

Bear his mild yoke, they serve him best, his State

Is Kingly. Thousands at his bidding speed

And post o're Land and Ocean without rest:

They also serve who only stand and wait.

Fifth Sunday in Lent: Passiontide Begins

This Sunday in Lent is often referred to as "Passion Sunday," the beginning of Passiontide commemorating the increasing revelation of Christ's deity in his last days. Though the title has gone out of fashion or some now think of only the last week as Passiontide, I appreciate the 2 week marker as a call for a deeper time in Lent. It is easy at this point to begin to lose steam: our weaknesses are ever before us and Easter still seems far away. On the other hand, it is also usually at this point that I just start to get a clue as to what I should've been praying about during Lent. His mercies are new every morning; may we continue seeking Him on this Lenten Journey.


For those looking for help as they pray during Passiontide:
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/worship/liturgy/commonworship/texts/daily/daily/day/passiontide.html

Easter Planning

I don't think I will have much to post in the next week for Feasts leading up to Holy Week. (Though I am looking forward to John Donne's Feast Day on the 31st. He was one of my favorite poets in college and it would do me good to read him again! Any other Donne fans out there?) I want to make the most of any quiet moments in my day to continue my Lenten practices and the internet can be a big distraction!

I do hope to post on our Holy Week traditions, including Spring Cleaning and Menu Plans, but this year things will look a little different than the past 5 years. When we moved to Kenosha, WI, we attended a wonderful non-denominational church and observed the church year at home or with a few like-minded friends. Now we are attending an Episcopal church again since we've moved to the Philly area and we have the option of actually going to church so I'm not quite sure what we will do.

We've always observed Maundy Thursday at home with my husband doing the foot-washing, our own "stripping of the altar," and Tenebrae service. It has been so intimate and moving to do it in our own "domestic church" that I am torn about how we should observe. Stations of the Cross on Good Friday has been at home too but our church has the Stations around our sanctuary using amazing original artwork of a church member (I hope to write about too) and there is a children's service in the morning. On Friday evening our church is doing Mozart's Requiem but it's too late to even try to bring the little ones and we haven't been able to find a babysitter. So it looks like hubby and I will be fighting it out over who deserves or needs the service more! And then there is prayer around the clock on Good Friday at our church as well.

We've always had my husband's students or church friends who don't have a place to go on Easter Sunday which we'll do again this year but we'll also be able to have my family come too! So many changes, so much good...

I don't want to hold onto "traditions" at the cost of new meaningful ways we can celebrate. I don't want to hold onto traditions so tightly that they become more important that what we are actually trying to celebrate.

I don't want to "celebrate" in a way that means I'm exhausted, irritable, or anxious. Observing the church year with young children can be difficult. They can do little to help; they don't understand when I want to spend a day baking; the baby still needs to be fed!!!

So I'm try to look first at the short-term: what are the most important things God might be trying to accomplish in us this Holy Week and what traditions might help that?

Then I try to look long-term and decide what are the traditions I really want us all to remember when the children are grown. Some activities are fun (resurrection cookies, Jesus Jelly beans, Resurrections eggs, etc.) and wonderful teaching tools but are they things that we will all really hold on to as meaningful?

Well, hopefully writing on the blog will help me to be diligent about planning ahead and to answer these questions well. I look forward to reading others of you write about your Holy Week planning, traditions, special foods and how you balance it all! Easter is the most important day of the church year; I can't wait!

A fun find-Feasts for feast days

I had a great find at our church's book sale this past week. For just $1 I picked up Feasts for Feast Days by Virginia Richardson published by The Episcopalian here in Philly in 1985.



It includes menus and recipes for all the major feast days and a short biography of the saint or Holy Day. Though some of the recipes are not quite our eating style, they are a great place to start as she chooses recipes that are either traditional to the feast, or related to the saints country of origin or to a legend surrounding the saint.

Sfinge di San Giuseppe

Here are the delicious pastries, Sfinge di San Giuseppe (St. Joseph cream puffs or cake), from La Dolce on Eagle Road in Havertown. They were so good! The one was filled with a vanilla cream and the other a sweetened ricotta with chocolate chips. My children will now always look forward to St. Joseph's day and I may never bother to attempt the recipe myself!

We enjoyed a sweet time together. I ignored the laundry, dirty dishes, and tried to be present to the children. We colored and snacked and read Scripture and stories together. So much better then normal household duties anyway--as long as no one comes to the door to see the mess!

As I thought about Joseph today, I wondered if I was willing to be like him--quiet, behind the scenes. After the initial story we seem to lose track of him altogether. Before looking at the artwork of Joseph, G. asked why did Joseph never hold Jesus! I assured her he did, but I wondered would it be enough for me to hold Jesus without being in the pictures? How do I seek my own glory instead of pointing to Christ? How am I not satisfied with the quiet work of my hands--diapering, cooking, cleaning, feeding--like the carpenter but long for the days when I will be back doing "important" work? Work that brings recognition, money, and flexibility. Joseph is an important part of Christ's story here on earth. Scripture includes very specific details of his role, but the story is not about him. Am I willing for my story to be Christ's story?

Spring will Spring tomorrow!

Wishing you a happy spring!

Spring

by Gerard Manley Hopkins

Nothing is so beautiful as spring—
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;
Thrush's eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;
The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.
What is all this juice and all this joy?
A strain of the earth's sweet being in the beginning
In Eden garden.—Have, get, before it cloy,
Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,
Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,
Most, O maid's child, thy choice and worthy the winning.

I Meant To Do My Work Today
by Richard Le Gallienne

I meant to do my work today,
But a brown bird sang in the apple tree,
And a butterfly flitted across the field,
And all the leaves were calling me.
And the wind went sighing over the land,
Tossing the grasses to and fro,
And a rainbow held out its shining hand
--So what could I do but laugh and go?

Looking for some fun crafts, go to http://www.dltk-holidays.com/spring/index.htm

We usually have a picnic--having lived in Wisconsin it has always been a picnic on a blanket in the living room but I'm hoping it's outside here in southeastern PA!

The Feast of St. Joseph

Tomorrow is the Feast of St. Joseph, Foster-father of Jesus. G. called him Daddy Jo, the Christmas before she turned 2!



This day always catches me by surprise so our celebration is quite simple, fitting this quiet man. The gospels record no words for Joseph, but there is still much to be learned from him in the way of obedience and faithfulness. I'm planning to pull out some of our Christmas books that focus on the story from Joseph's perspective and read the accounts of his role in the gospels. And since we haven't done any art study this week, I hope to look at St. Joseph in Art and the collection from Textweek. I may have them just free draw in response to the art or do coloring pages too.

Given Joseph's "silence" in Scripture, I hope to spend some time in quiet praying about my own obedience and faithfulness. I have read that Joseph represents the Church in response to Jesus. For many this is a day to consider one's vocation and so I hope to learn from him more of what my calling is and how to live it out in my daily routine. If I may quote the Pope on an Anglican blog, "Let us allow ourselves to be "filled" with Saint Joseph's silence! In a world that is often too noisy, that encourages neither recollection nor listening to God's voice."



Being Italian I would one day like to host a St. Joseph party with the St. Joseph altar and Traditional Italian foods. Visit Catholic Cuisine for a description. But my husband will be away this year so I think I will just pick up cream puffs: "There is a traditional Italian dessert for the Feast of St. Joseph, celebrated on March 19, called St. Joseph's Sfinge. It is a large cream puff, filled with a delicious cheese filling and topped with a cherry." Sounds yummy and we have an Italian Bakery in walking distance.

O God, who from the family of your servant David raised up Joseph to be the guardian of your incarnate Son and the spouse of his virgin mother: Give us grace to imitate his uprightness of life and his obedience to your commands; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

2 Samuel 7:4,8-16
Romans 4:13-18
Luke 2:41-52
Psalm 89:1-29 or 89:1-4, 26-29

St. Patrick-Day 2!

Well, we had so much fun learning about St. Patrick our festivities are spilling over into today. I had put our St. Patrick books above the fireplace so everyday the kids would beg to hear the story, but had to wait until yesterday! So they really want to hear the stories again today. Our friends also lent a video that is a cartoon of Patrick's life. (They're watching right now so I'm having a rare quiet time with a cup of coffee.) We also didn't get to read St. Patrick's Breastplate at our party last night so we'll have to get to it today.

Our feast last night was so much fun. It was encouraging to share traditions with new friends and their children. I love how celebrating the church year brings the opportunity to discuss spiritual truths with our kids on a random Tuesday night! Some highlights:

1. We discussed the Trinity with the shamrock plant and the clovers we colored and I could really see the 4 year old girls working through the concept.

2. My 2 yr old was enthralled with the story of a hero. When we read about the Irish pirates looting and then kidnapping Patrick, he jumped down and acted it out. The Tompert book really brought the story to life and expressed Patrick's conversion and reliance on God so well.

3. Later G. asked, "How could Patrick do all good and never sin?" Not quite sure why she would have thought this. This led to a discussion of how "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God" and Patrick though a godly man was fallen just like us. She then compared him to Jesus who was "all good."

Well, my free time is at an end. Hope you have a good day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

St. Patrick's Breastplate
...Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ on my right, Christ on my left, Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise, Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me, Christ in the mouth of every one who speaks of me, Christ in the eye of every one that sees me, Christ in every ear that hears me...

Irish Soda Bread
This is my favorite recipe for this bread. It's great that it is a quick bread--no real kneading, no rise, but so moist and yummy!

4 cups all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons white sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup margarine, softened
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1/4 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup buttermilk

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease a large baking sheet.
In a large bowl, mix together flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and margarine. Stir in 1 cup of buttermilk and egg. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead slightly. Form dough into a round and place on prepared baking sheet. In a small bowl, combine melted butter with 1/4 cup buttermilk; brush loaf with this mixture. Use a sharp knife to cut an 'X' into the top of the loaf.
Bake in preheated oven for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean, about 30 to 50 minutes. You may continue to brush the loaf with the butter mixture while it bakes.

If you don't have buttermilk, add 1 Tablespoon of Lemon Juice to 1 cup of milk. Let sit and then stir.

St. Patricks Day!

St. Patrick's Feast is one of our favorites. This year we get to celebrate with friends! Here are a few ideas.

A Prayer for the feast:

Almighty God, in your providence you chose your servant Patrick to be the apostle of the Irish people, to bring those who were wandering in darkness and error to the true light and knowledge of you: Grant us so to walk in that light that we may come at last to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.


Scriptures to read:
1 Thessalonians 2:2b-12Matthew 28:16-20Psalm 97:1-2,7-12 orPsalm 96:1-7



Activities:


Make 3 leaf clovers and discuss how Patrick used them to teach about the Trinity. Here is a sample craft. Go on a clover hunt if they are growing in your area.

For your little ones, have them hold and move the clover as you sing St. Patrick's Breastplate.







Make breastplates. We designed ours with snakes and cross.













G. in 2006!











Tell stories and legends of St. Patrick. We focus on his evangelism, his bravery and his devotion which can be learned from his own writings.

We were able to find Saint Patrick by Ann Tompert at the library; it focuses on the known events of his life rather than the legends.

But I wish we were able to find

The Story of St. Patrick by James A. Janda

Patrick: Saint of Ireland by Joyce Denham

Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland by Tomie DePaola

Here are the Cross and Clover images we used to color our shield and breastplate:

Here is an online source that includes Patrick's biography along with the words his Lorica or St. Patrick's Breastplate:

http://www.domestic-church.com/CONTENT.DCC/19980301/SAINTS/STPAT.HTM


And Catholic mom, as always, has links to coloring pages, books, and cooking fun: http://www.catholicmom.com/st__patrick

We'd love to hear what you are doing to celebrate the life of this saint!

Breath Prayer

A prayer as long as a breath, done rhythmically as you breath in and out. A breath prayer is a simple and quick way to focus and center you in a quiet moment or in the midst of your busy day on Jesus. I find them helpful when I can't muster up much more and humbling when I want to pray in my own strength and hear myself talk rather than to be quiet and listen.

My breath prayer today comes from the Psalms an is used at the beginning of the Noon Office and Compline (the office before bed).

O God, make speed to save us. O Lord, make haste to help us.

The rhythm and alliteration make this easy to remember as a breath prayer. It acknowledges He is Lord and that we are weak, not always an easy thing to do.

A good prayer for this cloudy day, messy house, cranky kids, sick baby, and tired mommy. Save us, help us...

Lent=spring

So I've just learned that the word Lent comes from the Anglo-Saxon word lencten for Spring. I only found out because my 4 yr old asked!! Isn't it funny how they often ask the questions we should have asked long ago?!

Though I don't quite understand all of the history of Lent (for a quick overview from Christianity Today click here), its tie to Spring is fitting to me. We begin Lent by remembering we are dust. With our frailty and impoverishment before us, the idea that God would use us for His Glory is absurd, but we seek Him with a renewed devotion, ask for an outpouring of His Spirit to grow us in prayer and discipline, cutting away at those things which keep us from Him. And during these 40 days, we hope that our cold hearts will thaw and new life will grow again.

I am reminded of Eliot's opening lines of the The Wasteland:

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding

Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing

Memory and desire, stirring

Dull roots with spring rain.

Winter kept us warm, covering

Earth in forgetful snow, feeding

A little life with dried tubers.

In Spring/Lent we see life bloom from the dust, the dead and the dry. And the often painful process of bringing forth new life out of the dead land of our hearts may cause us to wish to stay covered in the "forgetful snow." Yet the littlest signs of new life bring us courage and perseverance.

I had an unexpected chance to go on a little nature walk this past week at the enchanting Valley Garden Park. We were without our older two and heading to the Brandywine River Museum to view their three generations of Wyeths (worth the trip if you live in the area). When my romantic hubby made a stop a place so enchanting a friend told me her children called it Narnia. Perhaps it was that the visit was unexpected, perhaps that it was our first warm day, perhaps because we were without kids, but this walk filled me with hope.

Though the snow was melting, I doubted we would yet see anything green. But there in the midst of dead grass, frozen ice and and dry earth was life bursting forth all around us:

And I felt hope. Hope that this long winter would soon be over. Hope that from dried tubers new life would bloom. Hope that though it is Lent, it will soon be Easter.

sabbath poems

We have a 20 minute ride to our church on Sunday mornings and so lately we've taken to reading a poem on the trip. It's just about enough time to read it, work through it, and then read it again with meaning and appreciation. This week we turned to Wendell Berry's A Timbered Choir: Sabbath Poems.

Even if you do not go out "among trees" on this Lord's Day, may you find the place and time so that "all [your] stirring becomes quiet." Wishing you a day of Sabbath rest...

I Go Among Trees and Sit Still
by Wendell Berry
I go among trees and sit still.
All my stirring becomes quiet
Around me like circles on water.
My tasks lie in their places
Where I left them, asleep like cattle

Then what is afraid of me comes,
and lives awhile in my sight.
What it fears in me leaves me,
and the fear of me leaves it.
It sings and I hear its song.

Then what I am afraid of comes.
I live for a while in its sight.
What I fear in it leaves it
and the fear of it leaves me.
It sings and I hear its song.

After days of labor,
mute in my consternations,
I hear my song at last,
and I sing it. As we sing,
the day turns, the trees move.

Bright Sadness-The First Sunday of Lent

In Great Lent, Alexander Schmemann description of a Lenten service in the Orthodox church as a "Bright Sadness" perfectly captured the mood of our service at the Church of The Good Samaritan, today on the first Sunday of Lent. Schmemann writes that "a certain quiet sadness permeates the service..." and that was certainly true as our service began not with its usual triumphant choral entry but silence as our pastor prayed the Decalogue (BCP p. 350). I had never prayed the 10 commandments before. As we moved through the commandments, the Spirit revealed that even in my seemingly small sins, I daily break these commands. Then when we moved not to the typical Gloria but a beautiful arrangement of the Kyrie (S96), I was comforted and gladdened to join in with the Church's song: "Lord, Have Mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy."
But it is then that a change begins to take place in the service as Schmemann
writes,

Little by little we begin to understand, or rather to feel, that this
sadness is indeed "bright," that a mysterious transformation is about to take
place in us. It is as if we were reaching a place to which the noises and the
fuss of life, of the street, of all that which usually fills our days and even
nights, have no access--a place where they have no power. All that which seemed
so tremendously important to us as to fill our mind, that state of anxiety which
has virtually become our second nature, disappear somewhere and we begin to feel
free, light and happy. It is not the noisy and superficial happiness which comes
and goes twenty times a day and is so fragile and fugitive; it is a deep
happiness which comes not from a single and particular reason but from our sould
having in the words of Dostoevsky, touches "another world."

This touch from another world is from a loving Father who has promised that "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (I John 1:8,9). Though Lent is journey and often a hard one, the end of the road is sure: we are ever being led from the Cross to the Grave to the Resurrection. "A deep happiness" indeed!