Welcome to our blog! This is a place to share ideas, thoughts, concerns and joys of our faith journey. I'll be posting sporadically, but hope you will feel free to comment and join in the discussions.

Monday, November 25, 2013

The Guest at The Table

America celebrates Thanksgiving this Thursday. If you're reading this, you most likely know this is so. You are probably one of thousands who are thinking of preparing food, thinking of cleaning the house, thinking of the little last minute ironing of the tablecloth, thinking that if you don't stop thinking you'll never get any sleep. It's a busy time, even if you are not hosting a dinner for far flung relatives.

I like thinking of dinners past. The times we gathered in the living room of my grandmother and grandfather's house, with all the leaves of the table inserted and the table groaning with food. The first time my brother-in-law fried a turkey and again the countertop laden with more food choices than one single human could possibly eat! Thanksgiving seems to be the time when our endless bounty overflowed in the delectable dishes spread out before us. But a tradition that has been kept from one year to the next, before we load our plates with all the temptations gustatorial, is when we either stand or sit around the table holding hands and thank The Lord for our blessings. It's never a very long prayer, or very eloquent by some standards. But I have always felt that the presence of The Lord around our table, laughing with delight at our foibles and antics is central to the celebration.

I hope you will invite The Lord to your table this year, as we invite him to ours. I know he would rejoice at the invitation, even if you didn't iron the tablecloth.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Time After Time

I heard a song the other day that I have heard lots of times before. I know it so well, that I've memorized the lyrics. The version I heard was sung by Carly Simon. The melody was sort of dreamy.  The name of the song is, "Time After Time," and no it's not the rock song. It's just a short little song with wistful words. 

Along with the fact that I heard this song, the evening before I had watched that movie with Whoppie Goldberg as a nun leading a choir. Remember that one? They took some 60's girl band songs and tweaked the words to reflect the nun's devotion to God. Remember, "I Will Follow Him," and how it took on new meaning when the nuns sang it? So here I am listening to Carly Simon sing, "time after time, I tell myself that I'm so lucky loving you," and I think that I'm so lucky that God feels this way about me! We've been told how much He loves us and how He gave us Jesus and I mean how much more loved, blessed, LUCKY, can we be?

And the last stanza seems appropriate as well, "and time after time, you'll hear me say that I'm so lucky to be loving you!" Because it's certainly reciprocal on my part as well as His! Can you think of other songs that would work this way? Not just hymns (although there are some wonderful ones), but songs that could be translated differently? I'll have to think of some!

Friday, November 8, 2013

The Light inThe Morning

I am not and never, probably, will be an early riser. I do not wake up in good cheer first thing in the morning. Even when I know the day will be full of exciting or wonderful experiences, my waking mood is less than enthusiastic. This morning was no different, I woke up earlier than I needed to for some reason. I lay in bed wondering what got into me. And I rolled over and looked out the window. The sun was beginning it's slow but sure ascent and the sky was such a stunning shade of blues and pinks and mauve, that my mood seemed somehow an affront! How could anyone look at the sky this morning and not want to greet the day? And then I thought, I am alive to see this! Another dark night has passed and the morning has come through to deliver me from its hold!

Did Easter look like this morning? Did someone marvel at God's blessing of a new day which showed itself in such glorious splendor? I can only imagine it was so. For today, I will rise from bed and instead of making my way bleary-eyed to the breakfast table, I think I will ponder the wonder of the fact that I did wake up to be greeted this way, while I sip my morning tea.