Tag Archives: lent

Good Friday: Carrying the Cross

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This morning I walked around downtown for an hour with 30-40 other people from church. We drew looks from people as we went. Some were looks of shock, others surprise, confusion, and anger. A small number of people joined us more shouted mocking things from their car windows as they drove by. We were surrounded by the press at all times: at least two television stations and two newspapers were represented. I was interviewed.

So what were we doing to solicit all of these very mixed reactions? We were taking turns at carrying a 15 foot long wooden cross, stopping periodically to read passages from the gospels and Isaiah pertaining to the Passion of Jesus.

I read aloud a selection about how Jesus was mocked and beaten whilst standing on the corner of Government and Humboldt, kitty-corner to the tourist information centre. Despite using a megaphone, I was all but drowned out by the vehicles roaring by at 9:30am. Half past nine in the morning on Good Friday and downtown was already abuzz with traffic. No wonder we got so many confused looks. More frequently, we drew looks of anger from store keepers and we paused infront of their shop waiting for the light to turn. I wonder how many people actually knew the reason why they had a day off of work? As one of my fellow walkers said to me “Christians need to get out of the four walls of their buildings and be visible in the community more often.” Indeed.

I had an opportunity to carry the cross for a the last few blocks of our walk. I wasn’t going to but they needed someone to finish it up (sort of like Simon of Cyrene?) and the previously mentioned fellow-walker told me it was a moving experience. So I took the cross. I wasn’t anticipating it to feel as strange as it did. With a cross over one shoulder, I had limited mobility as it was difficult to turn around and see if the group was even still following me. I was all alone with a big hunk of wood on my shoulder. I felt more at the centre of things than I have in a long time: exposed. While I would not presume to compare my experience to that of Jesus’ in carrying his cross, I can understand a little more of how it felt. In those last two and a half blocks that I carried the cross I was isolated and alone. There was no one in my field of vision save the photographers that followed us relentlessly and all I could do was look ahead and focus on the destination.

This is the 23rd year that Christ Church has done this, but this year was one of the lowest turn outs yet. I wonder what this says about our priorities when there are more people shopping on Good Friday morning than there are at church.

Three Days

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Friday:

When you agree to be the mother of God
you make no conditions, no stipulations.
You flinch before neither cruel thorn nor rod.
You accept the tears; you endure the tribulations.

But, my God, I didn’t know if would be like this.
I didn’t ask for a child so different from others.
I wanted only the ordinary bliss,
to be the most mundane of mothers.

Saturday:

When I first saw the mystery of the Word
made flesh I never thought that in his side
I’d see the callous wound of Roman sword
piercing my heart on the hill where he died.

How can the Word be silenced? Where has it gone?
Where are the angel voices that sang at his birth?
My frail heart falters. I need the light of the Son.
What is this darkness over the face of the earth?

Sunday:

Dear God, He has come, the Word has come again.
There is no terror left in silence, in clouds, in gloom.
He has conquered the hate; he has overcome the pain.
Where, days ago, was death lies only an empty tomb.

The secret should have come to me with his birth,
when glory shone through darkness, peace through strife.
For every birth follows a kind of death,
and only after pain comes life.

– Madeleine L’Engle, The Ordering of Love

Maundy Thursday

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I had good intentions of going to the High Mass service tonight for Maundy Thursday. I really did. Up until I started to think about how little studying I had done over the past week in preparation for my exams beginning in a week. I have a study calender set up that I have not adhered to. In fact, the only thing that will probably end up happening as planned is the day labeled “Freak Out Study Time” before my last two back-to-back exams.

So what did I do this evening? I came home and checked my email and then decided to go to yoga. I’ve never done yoga before but a hot yoga studio has opened (a few months ago now) just 5 blocks away and I’ve been thinking of checking it out for ages now. The heat wasn’t as bad as I had expected – I did live through PNG heat! I am everybit as inflexible as I have always been, but it was good and I feel refreshed now. The problem is, I got home at 10pm after not having really eaten dinner and having not studied a lick this evening.

Currently, I am listening to iTunes on “Neglected” (tracks I haven’t played since I uploaded all my music from iPod to computer and whipped all play counts), attempting one of the chem exams I printed off, drinking water, eating Girl Guide cookies, and reading through my RSS feed. This sermon is a fascinating and stimulating read. Enjoy.

A musician takes us out on pilgrimage

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I have written about my thoughts on pilgrimage recently. Continuing on in the same vein, I just read an excellent series of Lent meditations on pilgrimage inspired by the Canadian musician Oliver Schroer’s album Camino, written (and often recorded) as he walked the camino Santiago de Compostela. Enjoy. (And if you haven’t listened to that album, it is very good also.)

Lent

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Woke up this morning to a bit of a surprise: a light dusting of snow over everything. I had thought about going down to the shipyard to help out for the day but a combination of the snow and the fact that I’m working every non-school day next month made me stay home. I will be cherishing all the time I have to “do nothing” from here on in!
Not that I did nothing today. After some mundane house-related things, I went off on my walk. I’ve come to like walking a lot lately. During my months of serious thinking about my future, I did a lot of walking because it helped to clear my thoughts and was a good way to get away from distractions and pray as I enjoyed God’s creation. It was too good of a thing to give up and now I walk as often as I can. Though lately it has become more of a destination-focussed walk (Cadboro Bay, either the beach or the coffee shop, depending on the weather) than a walk-focussed walk.
As I’ve mentioned, I rarely listen to my iPod when I’m walking around anymore. As a result, I think I’ve been more involved in creation as I go. Rustling leaves beside the path give me a reason to pause and I’ve noticed some cute little wrens; a loud chirping (borderline obnoxious chatter) has introduced me to a new (for me) hummingbird. This morning, despite the snow, the signs of spring were everywhere.

I spent some on the walk, and at my mid-point coffee shop/journaling spot, time reflecting on last night’s Ash Wednesday service at church. It was quite a moving and thought-provoking service. I found it interesting (not coincidental though, because I don’t think it is coincidence when these things match up) that the Old Testament reading (Isaiah 58) directly related, at least in my mind, to the book I just finished reading, Three Cups of Tea. Related, at least, in the sense of vs. 6&7 of the OT reading:
Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: 
to loose the chains of injustice 
and untie the cords of the yoke, 
to set the oppressed free 
and break every yoke?

Is it not to share your food with the hungry 
and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— 
when you see the naked, to clothe him, 
and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?
My challenge for Lent this year is two fold; I’m not “giving up” anything, rather I want to change how I do things. 
I want to spend more time in prayer and reading/meditating on the Word, less time doing meaningless things that eat up time.
And I want to examine how I interact with my world, both my immediate circle and the greater world around me, finding ways to do the kind of fast God deems as acceptable.

Ash Wednesday

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Although I do not hope to turn again
Although I do not hope
Although I do not hope to turn

Wavering between the profit and the loss
In this brief transit where the dreams cross
The dreamcrossed twilight between birth and dying
(Bless me father) though I do not wish to wish these things
From the wide window towards the granite shore
The white sails still fly seaward, seaward flying
Unbroken wings

And the lost heart stiffens and rejoices
In the lost lilac and the lost sea voices
And the weak spirit quickens to rebel
For the bent golden-rod and the lost sea smell
Quickens to recover
The cry of quail and the whirling plover
And the blind eye creates
The empty forms between the ivory gates
And smell renews the salt savour of the sandy earth 

This is the time of tension between dying and birth 
The place of solitude where three dreams cross 
Between blue rocks 
But when the voices shaken from the yew-tree drift away 
Let the other yew be shaken and reply.

Blessed sister, holy mother, spirit of the fountain, spirit of the garden,
Suffer us not to mock ourselves with falsehood
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still
Even among these rocks,
Our peace in His will
And even among these rocks
Sister, mother
And spirit of the river, spirit of the sea,
Suffer me not to be separated

And let my cry come unto Thee.

From T.S. Eliot’s Ash Wednesday, stanza VI.

Today

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Beautiful day in Victoria. I finally got my long-awaited sleep-in this morning and managed to get a whole 30 minutes extra. After running around downtown and various other places, I walked down to Cadboro Bay once again. It is becoming one of my favourite places to pass time. It was wonderfully warm until the sun moved behind trees and shade began to creep across the beach. I sat on a log and drank my coffee while alternating between reading my book and watching all the people on the beach.

There were lots of dogs being run on the beach and they are always humerous to watch as they hop up and down waiting for sticks to be thrown, sniff each other up and down, and frolic in the water. Other people were taking in the sunshine just strolling down the beach or going for a run and still others were doing like myself and sitting on a log soaking in the sun.


Now that it has warmed up a bit from our periodic snow and bitter cold wind over the last few weeks, the blossoms are beginning to emerge. The snowdrops have been up for a few weeks but all of a sudden the crocuses are showing and there are a number of daffodil buds to be seen. Trees have the beginnings of blossoms and everything is lovely and green. My biggest surprise today was the pussy-willows. I’m used to small bushes like what we had in the backyard in Belleville. We would cut a few branches every year and wait for them to bud inside during Lent as our Easter tree. They have already bud here and apparently grow to the size of a full grown tree!

Speaking of Lent, next week is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season leading up to Easter. Tuesday is Shrove Tuesday (Mardi Gras) and I’m looking forward to my first church pancake supper in many years. That means it is now time to start thinking about anything that I might do in lifestyle change during the season of Lent. How about you? Any plans? Think about it and let me know. It is easier to keep commitment to these things if we support each other.