Mentors

Mentors and friends

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us. Hebrews 12:1

I have a friend and mentor, Isabel Anders, whom I first met many, many years ago in her Advent book, Awaiting the Child, An Advent Journal. She wrote the Advent of her first pregnancy about the meaning of Advent to a woman who also was preparing for a child. It is still one of my favorite books to read in Advent, and I often give the book to other women who are expecting a baby during the Advent season.

I wrote to Isabel when I first started writing. She encouraged me and directed me to places where I could send my writing. Isabel and I reconnected several years ago when I realized she was the editor of Synthesis CE, www.synthesispub.com, a lectionary study guide based on the revised common lectionary especially for sermon preparation and Christian Education. We have never met face to face, but still share writings and encourage each other now almost weekly. We may know each other better than many friends who daily visit face to face.

Phyllis Tickle likewise was a friend and mentor. I timidly walked up to her at a book signing at a conference and asked if she looked at other author’s writings. Without hesitating, she immediately gave me her email address and told me to send her what I had written. She encouraged me, took time to read my material, suggested places to send it to, and wrote endorsements. Another friend, Duke Cain introduced me to Keith Miller who also encouraged me even though he was still so busy with his own writings. I can never express to these four people what a difference they made in my life. I can only pay it forward and hopefully do the same for others who ask for input about a talent or career they hope to pursue.

This is about gratitude, gratitude for those who take the time to help us along the way, those who encourage us. We must never forget them, give thanks for them, and in some small way, repay them by doing the same for others. How easy it is to believe that we achieved goals on our own, when along the way there are so many people to thank for guiding us.

Our community connections may not simply be the people who live near us. Our small group, so to speak, may be many miles away. Duke Cain, Keith Miller, and Phyllis Tickle have died, but I still feel their presence and encouragement. Keith and Duke and Phyllis and Isabel have been a part of the communion of saints in my life, living and dead, and “God helping, I want to be one too.”1

We are called to remember that we are never alone as we are constantly “surrounded by a cloud of witnesses supporting and caring for us.”

Joanna joannaseibert.come

1”I Sing A Song of the Saints of God,” Lesbia Scott

Hope and Beauty

Wendell Berry

“If you’re aching over the ugliness and unworthiness of the current American situation, take hope in the beauty of the Hannah Coulters of our world—who have lost so much and yet never been defeated.” Parker Palmer, Christian Century, October 24, 2018, vol. 135, no. 22. p. 24.

This recent Christian Century issue asked well- known authors, “What book would you describe as beautiful?” Parker Palmer’s source of beauty was Hannah Coulter, one of Wendell Berry eight novels about a fictional town, Port William, near the Kentucky River. Berry knows this land well since he and his family have farmed there for many generations. Parker was drawn to Hannah’s beauty as an icon of an elderly survivor of the death of two husbands who still could not be defeated by life as she renews a relationship with her community and the land. She tells her story simply and never loses hope even when her three children leave the farm. Hannah’s story is one of adaptation.

Our book group some years ago read A Place in Time, another book by Wendell Berry composed of twenty stories about the history of the Catletts, the Coulters, the Penns, the Rowanberrys, the Milbys, the Branches, from the end of the Civil War in 1864 to 2008 in Port William. These also are stories of the survivors of a hard life. Beulah Gibbs narrates her own story of how she and her family accumulated their possessions and land as she watches all being sold at auction so she can have money to go into a nursing home. Her worldly goods look different and not as important when they sit out on our lawn rather than in her living room. They are not as meaningful when they lose their relationship to each other.

Beulah Gibbs survives with memories of all that long life with her family on the farm keeping her company, as she looks forward to the caring visits of her community and those she loves.

I remember the story of the farmhand who has a crush on the preacher’s wife just before he goes off the World War II, but I have already forgotten many of the stories. However, as I pick up the book, I like Palmer, also remember and feel hope and beauty being personified in the pages of the twenty stories.

I am learning a little about connecting hope to beauty and want to continue to read about both, especially from masters of hope and beauty such as Berry and Palmer.

Joanna joannaseibert.com

Chapel Vigil

Chapel Vigil

For Guidance

“O God, by whom the meek are guided in judgment, and

light rises up in darkness for the godly: Grant us, in all

our doubts and uncertainties, the grace to ask what you

would have us to do, that the Spirit of wisdom may save

us from all false choices, and that in your light we may see

light, and in your straight path may not stumble; through

Jesus Christ our Lord.” Amen. The Book of Common Prayer, p. 832.

I sit in St. Mark’s Chapel for the first hour of our prayer vigil for Tuesday’s election. We have just finished Morning Prayer. The leader starts reading some of the prayers for an election from the Book of Common Prayer.

Suddenly I feel a peace that I have rarely known. I feel the prayers of the hundreds of people who also have prayed in this chapel. I think of the prayers we said in this chapel as we renewed our marriage vows on our 20th wedding anniversary with our children participating. I remember our first Easter Vigil with Gordon Swope in the 1980’s that was held in this chapel. He reminds us that we do not get extra points from God for being there but are privileged to be among the first who hear about the risen Lord.

I think of the 12-step Eucharists in this chapel on the first Wednesday of the month at 5:30 where people in recovery realize that the message of recovery is there in the church all along. Those in the church may realize that recovery is a spiritual program.

I think of the children’s chapels where preschoolers kneel and fold their tiny hands in a perfect V and bow their heads, which are most often hidden below the prayer desks in front of them almost touching their kneelers. I think of meditative prayers that are said in this chapel in Advent and Lent.

Finally, I feel surrounded by prayers of so many people over the years whom I do not know. I indeed feel surrounded by a cloud of witnesses.

I do not want to leave the chapel. I have a meeting to attend, but I do not want to go. Finally, I must leave, partly because the experience is so overpowering.

I return to the chapel later in the day for prayers. The feeling does not return. I now have become obsessed with the problems of the day, and it has become difficult for the prayers who live in the chapel to reach me. Do the cloud of witnesses only come in the morning before we start our day? Do I need a more quiet mind to hear the cloud of witnesses?

I know this is a holy place. Usually when I cross its threshold my heart rate slows. Maybe tomorrow I will hear the prayers again.

Joanna. Joannaseibert.com