Category: Sorrow

The Cloud of Witnesses

The Cloud of Witnesses

The Creator will take away the cloud of darkness that hangs over people, nations, and all creation.  In mercy, God will bring to an end the humiliation of people and the earth, wiping away anquish and destroying the power of death forever.
From Isaiah 25:7-8 [1]

Allhallowtide spans three significant days: Hallowed Eve (also known as Halloween), followed by All Saints’ Day (Saturday), and then All Souls’ Day on Sunday.   Apart from the festivities of Halloween, All Saints’ Day is an observance that does not deny the pervasive power of darkness.   It acknowledges the aching vulnerability each of us faces, including the inevitability of death that comes to each of us and every living thing on this planet.

Yet All Saints Sunday also resoundingly affirms that a cloud of witnesses surrounds each of us.    Though their earthly lives have come to an end, the presence of this cloud of witnesses remains fueled by grace and the power of love.   Such that they cannot nor will not be silenced.

And this is Good News

Prayer: Holy One, in this time of perilous darkness, as diabolical forces appear to devour whatever is and peacable and good, let us take heart that your cloud of witnesses declares we are not alone.   Though feeling buffeted from all sides, let us hold fast to the scripture that reassures us, saying, “…since a great cloud of witnesses surrounds us…let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on our Redeemer, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith.” [2]

And let all of God’s people say, Amen!

 

[1] From this Sunday’s lectionary, the Book of Isaiah 25:6-9, adapted

[2] From the Letter to the Hebrews, 12:1-2, adapted

 

 

 

 

The Transformative Power of Kindness (whose origin is sorrow)

“He was despised and rejected— a man of sorrows,
acquainted with deepest grief…”   Isaiah 53:3 

Earlier this week, the Christian tradition began its forty-day period of repentance and mourning, starting with the imposition of ashes this past Wednesday. This Sunday, March 9th, begins the first of six Sundays, during which both liturgy and sacred text attest to the gravity of the condition confronting humankind and all of creation—one steeped in finitude, vulnerability, and inexplicable loss.

Writes poet Naomi Shibah Nye,
“Before you know kindness as the deepest thing inside,
you must know sorrow as the other deepest thing
…then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore.” [1]

When cruelty appears to have the final word, be it ostracizing transgender people, othering immigrants, cutting off aid to third-world nations, or doubling down on plundering the planet, the transformative power of kindness offers a radically different lens.   A way of being that refuses to remain quiet or on the sidelines, but through speech and action,  “…raises its head from the crowd of the world to say, It is I you have been looking for and then goes with you everywhere like a shadow or a friend.”[2]

Prayer: Beloved One, did you know how much would be demanded of you when the Spirit drove you into the bleak and barren wilderness?  Yet, having faced the magnitude of want and the depth of sorrow’s bleakness, You became the tenderest of shoots, triumphantly emerging from the hard rock of despair.  So let us not lose heart in sorrow’s wake but bravely practice the transformative power of kindness.  For you are the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, and in You all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.  We offer this prayer in all the holy names of God. Amen. 

[1] Kindness, a poem by Naomi Shihab Nye, copyright 1995.

[2] ibid. 

[3] Scriptural references and text in today’s prayer come from the Gospel of Luke 4:1-13 and Colossians 1:15 & 1:19

[4] This reflection is offered in gratitude to Janice Mason Steeves, Mary Ann Holtz and others who take part in the online contemplative prayer community:https://meditationchapel.org/

 

 

 

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