Weekly Links!

~ LINKS TO SOME INTERESTING READING, FOR WHAT'S LEFT OF YOUR WEEKEND ~

FAITH

-"The Battle is the Lord's" - a snippet:

God is God. He has the power and the plan and all will be well and jolly and good and beautiful in the end no matter what I do, but I can be a part of the jollification. God does not need me, but I can be there.

-"Family Worship as Spiritual Formation": This is one post from a really excellent new series over at Mere Orthodoxy.

-"On Family Worship and Failure": This is another.

-"Father and Son at the Cross"

-"Giving People a Chance to Grow"

-"On Acts 29 and Spiritual Gifts"

Family

-"On the Outside": I know this was written to make me tear up. But...it worked.

Fiction

-"The Speculative World of William Shakespeare"

I hope you have a lovely Sunday, full of worship and rest!

Peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

journaling and prayer

I’m thinking about what Dallas Willard said about prayer, and about how it’s conversation with God about matters of mutual concern. And it made me feel better about how I usually pray – which is often in my journal.

I've been journaling regularly since the first day of eighth grade, and often, my best prayer times happen when I'm journaling. Because I don't journal to record events; I journal to figure things out. When I journal, I take what is bothering me, these big knotty problems that I can’t see a way around, and I lay them all out on the table, spreading them out so I can examine all the different bits, and I try to do that consciously in the Lord’s presence, inviting Him in and saying, “what is this? What am I missing? What do I do about this? Help me. Help me see what I’m seeing, help me know what to do, what my approach should be. Give me wisdom. Have mercy on me. Help me.”*

 And that? According to Willard, that is prayer. He said that the heart of prayer is the request. That there are other things a praying person will have in his life, like thanksgiving and praise, but that the heart of prayer is the request. And this, this laying out my problems and trying to look at them with the Lord – that’s prayer.

 I guess I always felt a little badly, because I so often felt like I prayed in my troubles and not in my joys. But now I see: prayer is for the troubles. Thanksgiving and praise is for the joys. It’s okay. It’s like in that song “Sacred” by Caedmon’s Call, where the singer is talking about her children and says, “Teach me to run to You/Like they run to me/For every little thing.” I am God’s child, and running to Him for “every little thing” is kind of what I’m supposed to be doing. That is, given the relationship, it makes sense. This is how children treat their parents.

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

*It's become this more and more as I've gotten older. It wasn't all prayer at the beginning and still isn't now, but the further I get in His service, the more it all become that.  

 

Pentecost

As I was falling asleep last night, I was thinking about books and the Holy Spirit. I was thinking about how when I read books by Dallas Willard and St. Francis de Sales - two men from different time periods and different Christian traditions - I hear the same voice in them.

And this, I think, is how I know - apart from the intellectual arguments - that people on opposite sides of the schisms, people even from different parts of history, these Christians of whom I am one, are servants of the same Lord. Because you can read the work of an ancient Catholic saint and a modern Protestant and hear the same voice speaking through both men. You can hear the influence of the Holy Spirit in both men's words. You know that they are listening to the same Person and meditating on the same Lord's instructions and following the same Way.

I think this is part of the gift of the Holy Spirit. Because He deigns to be present in each Christian, we are able to recognize each other. I'm not saying this like He's a magical talisman that beeps when you pass someone else that has one. What I am saying is that I think this is some of how Jesus' statement in John 10, that His sheep know Him and know His voice, works out in our lives. Because the Holy Spirit really is in us, we can really see Him, and hear Him, in each other. We know Him.

Sometimes, of course, we don't listen to Him, and when we're not listening to Him, I'm guessing it's probably harder for others to hear Him through us. But doesn't knowing that give you something to aim for? That's what I want: I want a heart pure enough that the light of the Holy Spirit can shine through it. I've seen that in other people in my own life - I've heard it in the words of men like de Sales and Willard - and I want to be like that. 

Not that anyone does it perfectly. None of us perfectly, not even these great saints. But you can see it in others, and isn't it heartening when you do? The great saints seem to me to be windows through which God's light can shine. Stained glass windows for sure, with streaks of black and odd-shaped sections colored by experiences good and bad. But God, as He always does, takes the mess we've made and - great artist that He is - turns it into something beautiful that shows His glory. Like a stained glass window. 

And the church, "with schisms rent asunder/with heresies distressed", is still the church. And you can know it is so because you can look at the Orthodox or at the Catholics or at the Protestants and in all of those groups you will find men and women who are filled with the same Holy Spirit. He is, as Paul said, our promise, our seal, that Jesus will indeed return and make it all right again. We know He will return because He did not leave us on our own. God is with us.  And He will come back and make it all right.

Happy Pentecost!

Peace of Christ to you,

Jessica Snell

an encouragement from St Francis de Sales

"Oh, how happy are they who keep their hearts open to holy inspirations! They never lack the graces necessary to them in order to live well and devoutly according to their conditions, and to fulfill in a holy way the duties of their professions. Just as God, by the ministry of nature, gives to each animal instincts needed for its preservation and the exercise of its natural properties, so too, if we do not resist God's grace, He gives to each of us the inspirations needed to live, work, and preserve ourselves in the spiritual life."
-St. Francis de Sales, Finding God's Will For You

He who spoke through the prophets

I’ve been reading through the Bible chronologically this year, and I just finished Obadiah – the first stand-alone book of the prophets – and am still in the midst of the story of Elisha. Which means I just finished reading about Elijah. (And, oh my goodness, it’s hard to get over the shock when he simply explodes onto the scene, after a king after king after king who did not remove the high places and walked in the ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat. All of the sudden: Elijah! Confronting hundreds of false prophets, running faster than a chariot drawn by horses, slaughtering crowds, running from an angry king, abiding in the desert, walking boldly up to the same angry king and proclaiming his doom, disappearing in a chariot of fire. Wow.)

Anyway, reading the words of Obadiah and Elijah and Elisha has me thinking about that line in the Creed which describes the Holy Spirit, saying “He has spoken through the prophets.”

I talked at Pentecost about how sometimes it seems like the Holy Spirit is the member of the Trinity we know the least about, and how part of the reason for this is that He is always pointing towards Jesus, and when He does, we look.

But I think that this one line in the Creed – He has spoken through the prophets – shows me who the Holy Spirit is. All of the sudden there are scores of passages I might read where I know I will hear His voice. This is where I learn what His voice sounds like.

And, I find, the amazing thing is: those Old Testament passages point toward Jesus too. The Holy Spirit speaks a message of salvation, of promise, even all those years ago. It’s the same voice. And we’ve seen and see the fulfillment of His words in Jesus.

But His words are still, always, more than I expect. More wild, more severe, more beautiful, more comforting than I expect. He is holy. And He deigns to speak to us, to show us Himself. Because He loves us.

If Elijah is amazing, it is because the Lord he serves is even more so.

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

Pentecost Carnvial - deadline extended - send in your posts!

The deadline for the Pentecost Blog Carnival is being extended till Friday. Kerry and I would love to have you participate; please just send me a link to your post on how you and your family celebrate Pentecost (can be from last year's festivities, if you like) or about the role of the Holy Spirit in your life, in the church's life, etc.

The idea is just to gather together thoughts from other liturgically-minded women as we prepare to celebrate this joyful holiday!

Please see my original prompts for some writing ideas, if you like, and then just send me your post at jessica dot snell at gmail dot com.

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

bad sympathy cards

Today I ordered some cards online. I like having birthday cards and such on hand, so I can send out a card when the occasion presents, and I've been getting a little low.

While I was ordering, I looked at the sympathy cards that were available. It's not something you want to have to send, but there you are. The problem was, most of them were awful. They came in packs, and while there was always at least one I could see sending (usually something along the lines of, "With sympathy . . . we're praying for you"), most of them were atrocious. It ranged from the cutesy-pukey ("How good it is that all the tears we ever cry are collected by angels") to the theologically bad ("Those who have given of themselves to others will live forever in each heart they have touched" - as my husband says, "what are you saying? Jesus lives in my heart, my uncle's gone to heaven!").

I decided that for times that call for a sympathy card, I'm going to stick to getting out a blank notecard and praying that the Holy Spirit will help me write good words.

That's something I've started doing with cards generally. I really started doing it when I was writing thank-you cards during my hospital stay. I'm still not great at writing cards, but I'm finding that when I ask for the Holy Spirit's help in sitting down and expressing some good thing - gratitude or encouragement or joy or sympathy - He does help me. It's still not a great skill of mine, but He helps clear my mind to focus on the task, on the person I'm writing. It feels like He helps me in loving whoever I'm writing to, and that's what really helps me actually put decent words down on paper.

So next time you sit down to write to someone, I encourage you to pray first.

Actually, it's also something I've taken to doing before I answer the phone or when I log onto my email. Usually it's a short prayer, something like, "Lord, please be between me and whoever is on the other line." But we are to pray without ceasing, and though I'm not perfect at it, these small interactions are another place I've found where I can invite the Holy Spirit into my day-to-day life, which is, of course, where He has the right to be anyway. And it helps me pay attention to what He might want me to do or say.

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica Snell

It's almost Pentecost!

Which is not my favorite holiday of the church year, but it does mean that my favorite hanging will be up in our sanctuary. One Sunday only, the Altar Guild puts the dove hanging on the lectern. I don't know who made this particular hanging, but it's a dove descending on a scarlet background, and somehow the needlewoman made the dove look exactly like a dove and exactly like a bird of prey at the same time. It's amazing.

I say that Pentecost is not my favorite holiday, but maybe it should be. Of course, I think that whenever a new holiday comes around. Epiphany, say. "But it's the light of the Gospel being revealed to the Gentiles! Of course it should be my favorite holiday!"

And how much more so for the gift of the Holy Spirit?

Christ the King Sunday is actually my favorite holiday of the Church Year. Christ Triumphant, Christ Returning. And I don't think that's going to change.

But the Holy Spirit is the one with me constantly, minute to minute, day to day. It is his holiday this Sunday, and I am glad it is there in the church year. The Holy Spirit always seems to be the most neglected member of the Trinity in public and private worship, and I once had a professor explain that this was, in part, because of his primary function, which was to point to Jesus. He said you could, in one way, picture it like this: say there's a blackboard with a picture of Jesus on it. The Holy Spirit is going to be the fellow standing behind the blackboard, reading his hand round the side to point at Jesus: "Look there, look at Him!" So when you are listening to the Holy Spirit, you are going to be looking at Jesus.

So maybe it's not so bad that Christ the King Sunday is my favorite. :D Still, five days from now is going to find me in red, in honor of the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.

peace of Christ to you,
Jessica