Julian of Norwich

Today is the feast day of Julian of Norwich. I'm a fan of hers. This is one of my favorite "cover prayers":

In you, Father all-mighty, we have our preservation and our bliss.

In you, Christ, we have our restoring and our saving.

You are our mother, brother, and savior.

In you, our Lord the Holy Spirit, is marvelous and plenteous grace.

You are our clothing; for love you wrap us and embrace us.

You are our maker, our lover, our keeper.

Teach us to believe that by your grace all shall be well,

and all shall be well,

and all manner of things shall be well.

Amen

Icon written by Lu Bro

April Showers

We have had some fantastically varied weather here in Bozeman this week. We hit 80 degrees on Tuesday. Wednesday was just as lovely - so lovely in fact that we worshiped outside on the patio at church on Wednesday evening. It cooled down Wednesday night, and yesterday morning the air was filled with the wonderful smell of spring rain. It almost felt like I was back in Seattle, or Belfast.

And then yesterday afternoon snowflakes as big as your head started falling. We woke up to this out the garage door this morning:

And to this out the back door onto our deck:

Of course, inside's not much better: Friends stored a bunch of boxes for us at their house, from the time we moved up here last August until this past Monday night. I spent part of Tuesday unpacking china and crystal, and wedding presents we had yet to use (it felt a little like Christmas morning). Unpacking was far more exciting that keeping the piles of packing paper tidy as I went. Besides, the cat has been having a BALL. No surprise...

I have my weekend work cut out for me!

Happy Earth Day!

"Flowers changed the face of the planet. Without them, the world we know. . . would never have existed. Francis Thompson, the English poet, once wrote that one could not pluck a flower without troubling a star. Intuitively he had sensed like a naturalist the enormous interlinked complexity of life. . . . The weight of a petal has changed the face of the world and made it ours." Loren Eiseley (1907-1977) US Anthropologist

Thanks much to Ministry of the Arts for sending me the above artwork ("How Flowers Changed the World" by Mary Southard, CSJ) and quote in an Earth Day greeting. I purchase a calendar from Ministry of the Arts every year - great original art, inspiring quotes and thoughts, and daily actions to take. Check them out!

Resurrection Day!

Happy Resurrection Day! I hope you are filled with the joy and hope of the day. Jesus is alive and it makes all the difference! We've had a full morning here in Bozeman, though I must say it felt pretty good NOT to have to get up for a sunrise service this morning. Frankly, I didn't miss it! And I think I'd encourage the introduction of the Vigil before we aim to start that early morning tradition. I'll let you know if anything changes next year. So, we had two full services, brass, choir, a very tasty brunch, an egg hunt, and the sun is shining in the blue sky scattered with those happy white fluffy clouds. The grass is even trying to turn green. (Go, chlorophyl, go!) I am looking forward to my Easter nap after I finish putting Grant's Easter basket together, and then to dinner with 3 young couples from the congregation. As tired as I am, my head is still pretty full, and running at 100 miles an hour. Every year I think of this poem by Steve Turner, a British poet I became a fan of during my year in Northern Ireland in the mid 90s. As always, let me know what you think. Christmas Is Really For The Children Christmas is really for the children. Especially for children who like animals, stables, stars and babies wrapped in swaddling clothes. Then there are wise men, kings in fine robes, humble shepherds and a hint of rich perfume. Easter is not really for the children unless accompanied by a cream filled egg. It has whips, blood, nails, a spear and allegations of body snatching. It involves politics, God and the sinds of the world. It is not good for people of a nervous disposition. They would do better to think on rabbits, chickens and the first snowdrop of spring. Or they'd do better to wait for a rerun of Christmas without asking too many questions about what Jesus did when he grew up or whether there's any connection.

Find me on Rooted

Grant and I have been trying to write a post a day for the bulk of Holy Week. You can catch up with me on our congregational blog: Rooted.

Things to Ponder

My how time flies! I can hardly believe this Sunday is the 5th Sunday in Lent already. We've had fun preaching on the lessons from the Hebrew Scriptures each Sunday morning. I have a feeling we'll be hitting the Gospel of John pretty hard during the great 50 days of Easter. Wahoo! With moving from our rented townhouse to the new house we just bought, there hasn't been a whole lot of time for reading at our house, though beginning to unpack box after box of books feels like a reunion with old friends. More about that later. For now, check out these quotes from the Emergence conference that Mary Hess posted. My current favorite is from Shane Claiborne: You can have all the right answers and still be mean. And if you’re mean, no one will listen to you. So true, so true.

U2's Top Ten

I've been going to bed early lately. Needing to be at the gym by 5:35am so I can be warmed up enough to start lifting weights at 5:45am has a lot to do with that. Last night I was up a little later than normal - U2 is on Letterman all week and there's no way Grant was going to miss it again. So I've already lapsed on my Lenten discipline of not watching TV at home, because we watched it. And we laughed really hard. Here's their Top Ten: