Darkness and Light, Candles and Prayers

Darkness and Light and Candles and Prayers

“If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will cover me, and the light around me turn to night,’ darkness is not dark to you, O Lord; the night is as bright as the day; darkness and light to you are both alike.”—Psalm 139:11-12.

stuart hoke

At the five o’clock contemporary service every Sunday night at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, the darkened nave is illuminated only by tealight candles on the altar in front of a large icon. After the usual Prayers of the People with a Leader and People response, they invite members of the congregation to come up and light a candle in front of the altar as they say a silent prayer of intercession. Tonight’s pianist plays music from the Taizé community, as almost all the members of the congregation come forward. 

While I remain in the chair behind my harp, I experience the scene as a Spirit-filled synthesis of corporate and individual intercessory prayer. I watch men and women, and sometimes children, walk silently up to light their taper and put it in an enormous earthenware bowl filled with sand. I know a few prayers that may be on some hearts. There are many people I do not know, much less what they are praying for, but I see faces displaying heartfelt emotion and sometimes silent tears. Even when I do not perceive their prayers, I can feel their power and maybe even their connection. There is a stream of people connecting to God in prayers for others, and sometimes for themselves.

The light from the many candles now brings brighter light to the church’s nave. The scene has become its own icon for teaching us what happens when we pray. Prayers germinate from the darkened nave and are born to transform the darkness into light. I remember that C. S. Lewis once wrote he “prayed not to change God, but to change himself.” These silent prayers being transported by candlelight are changing the appearance of the church and the pray-ers, and indeed they are changing me.

Joanna  https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Name day June 24

Name Day: June 24

“On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him Zechariah after his father. But his mother said, ‘No; he is to be called John.’ They said to her, ‘None of your relatives has this name.’ Then they began motioning to his father to find out what name he wanted to give him. He asked for a writing tablet and wrote, ‘His name is John.’ And all of them were amazed.”—Luke 1:59-63.

If your name is John or some derivative, June 24 is your name day. We also celebrate it as the birthday of John the Baptist. In some countries, such as Greece, this is even more important than your regular birthday. When our daughter, Joanna, and her dad were in Greece on this, her name day, their guide Maria did not charge them for taking them around that day. When others heard it was her name day, they gave her gifts.

Just as important as this name day is to our family is the remembrance that June 24 is the birthday of Bob, my husband’s father, who showed our children and us so much unconditional care and love. More and more in my life, I find it necessary to remember people who taught us about unconditional love. As we remember the person, we can feel that love they brought into our lives.

Consider finding out about your name, how you got your name, and even your name day.

On June 24, I also remember my grandparents, Joe and Anna, as I was named after them. Again, these were two people who taught me about love without conditions. I was the “apple of their eye.” They loved me no matter what I did. They did not always condone what I did, but still loved the sinner. Through their love, I learned about the unconditional love of God.

Honor and remember those who have brought the presence of love into your life. My experience is that in bringing them back into our memory, we can still feel and experience that love—even if they are not with us and are now living in eternal life.

The God of my understanding does not give us this love and then stop it at death. Love lives on. Love never dies.

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/

Abundance

Abundance

“The church is the only community that has as its central symbolic act called, ‘Thanks.’ The Eucharist. Eucharist is Greek for ‘Thanks.’ Participation in the Eucharist is an act of gratitude for the abundance that the creator God gives to the world! But the extraction economy wants to think, ‘It’s mine!’ ‘I made it, I own it, I can do what I want, I don’t have to be grateful to anybody.’ Which leads me to think that participation in the Eucharist is the most subversive thing we can do.

But notice what the long history of the church has done to the Eucharist. It has siphoned off its danger into something about sin and salvation and getting right with God, rather than a meal for the neighborhood.”—Walter Brueggemann, InwardOutward Daily Quote, August 23, 2018, InwardOutward.org, Church of the Saviour.

Brueggemann reminds us of something we so often forget about the Eucharist. Christ called all to the Welcome Table, which should be the center of our worship. Weekly or daily Eucharist is an experience of abundance. There is always enough bread and wine, and always some left over. The Eucharist is a reminder of a great gift, the love of God for each of us and for all.

Remembering we are giving thanks for God’s great gift of love,

Remembering this is a table of abundance for all,

 Remembering this is an assurance that we have been given a life of abundance through Christ

 Can make all the difference in how we receive the Eucharist and

How we live our lives.

Joanna. https://www.joannaseibert.com/