A Little Light

I've been so aware that I haven't written anything on this blog since Easter and it's really been bugging me! I have a lot of LIGHT quotes and writings and thoughts ready to be written about and shared, but haven't gotten to it. I did not want to let another day go by without sharing something and just had the thought of just putting a little light out there in the blogosphere for today. No heavy thoughts. No commentary. No musings and ponderings. Just a little light. Hope this makes sense to someone besides me! Here goes:

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HOLY WEEK & EASTER!!

This is the day the Lord has made, alleluia!
-Let us rejoice and be glad, alleluia!

We have traveled yet another 40 days and 40 nights of the Lenten Season, a desert time of solitude and solidarity, of prayer, and of mindfulness of life, of suffering, of meaning, and of impending death and sadness, lifelessness. And yet, even while in the darkness we have the inner knowing of hope, the reality of life and of life-giving LIGHT and love.

As I wrote in my last post, LIGHT explodes in the darkness! Life is renewed! Life is reawakened in our hearts, in our souls, in our world. It truly is -- if we have but eyes and hearts to see. And if we do not, all we must do is ask and it will be given us; it has been promised.

Alleluia! Alleluia!!
Jesus is risen!!
Alleluia! Alleluia!!
He is risen, indeed --
just as he said!
Alleluia! Alleluia!!

The path of life is a path through suffering; it is a path of birthing, of learning, of growing, of letting-go, of rejoicing, of grieving, and of healing. There are moments of clarity and moments of confusion; there are moments of darkness and moments of glorious LIGHT.

During the prayers of the holiest week of our Christian year we are united with Jesus, in all of the above -- all of our life's experiences are encapsulated in the Holy Week liturgies, readings, and prayers. We are immersed in the promises of our very own baptism:

"Are you not aware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Through baptism into his death we were buried with him, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might life a new life" (Romans 6:3-4).

What an awesome gift to us from the God who loves us so much, a gift offered to us by the Church through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Our focus on Jesus' passion, death, entombment, and glorious resurrection plays out before us year after year, inviting us, luring us, enticing us, stirring and igniting out hearts, and embracing us fully, into union with God and with all of humanity.

We must remember:

"The darkness is over and the real LIGHT begins to shine. The one who claims to be in LIGHT, hating their brother [or sister] all the while, is in darkness even now. The one who continues in the LIGHT is the one who loves their brother [and sister]; there is nothing in them to cause a fall" (1 John 2:8b-10).

This is the day the Lord has made, alleluia!
-Let us rejoice and be glad, alleluia!

HAPPY EASTER!

Lenten Light IV & V

I kind-a missed Lent IV. Not really, just didn't post here.

The Lenten Journey certainly continues. We move day-by-day through the 40 days of readings and reflections on the days and nights of Jesus and his disciples as we get closer to the remembrance of crucifixion, entombment, and resurrection. This is our story, of living and dying and rising to new life, from LIGHT to darkness, to new and more glorious LIGHT.

LIGHT promised.
LIGHT given.
LIGHT received.
LIGHT perceived.
LIGHT discovered.
LIGHT experienced.
LIGHT embraced.
LIGHT lived, danced, breathed.
LIGHT hidden, denied.
LIGHT dimmed, diminished, died...
LIGHT remembered.
LIGHT's continued promise.
LIGHT explodes!
LIGHT resurrected!
New LIGHT!
New LIFE!
Amen.

LIGHT a candle....the LIGHT overcomes the darkness. Every time.

HAPPY SPRING!

Happy Spring, indeed! Longer days, more LIGHT; and the LIGHT overcomes the darkness.

This is a bit of fun and interesting information that was shared on the Coast to Coast email newsletter this morning. The link is to an interesting article from National Geographic.

"Welcome to the Vernal Equinox, the first day of Spring.

On this day, a person standing on the equator can see the sun directly pass overhead. And at the North Pole, the sun skims the horizon, signaling the start of six months of non-stop daylight."

Blessings to you of LIGHT & love, peace & joy, & new life this spring!

May your days be sparkling and filled with LIGHT!!

Let your LIGHT shine!!!

Lenten Light III

"Give LIGHT and the darkness will disappear of itself."
-Erasmus

Amazing things happen when we become LIGHT-bearers -- when we share the LIGHT that we have, the LIGHT that we are, we give a gift of LIGHT to the entire world!

Lenten Light II

This Second Sunday of Lent we read the intriguing gospel account of the Transfiguration of Jesus (Mark 9:2-10).

"Jesus took Peter, James, and John and led them up a high mountain apart by themselves.
And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no fuller on earth could bleach them. Then Elijah appeared to them along with Moses, and they were conversing with Jesus. Then Peter said to Jesus in reply, "Rabbi, it is good that we are here!
Let us make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." He hardly knew what to say, they were so terrified. Then a cloud came, casting a shadow over them; from the cloud came a voice, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him." Suddenly, looking around, they no longer saw anyone but Jesus alone with them. As they were coming down from the mountain, he charged them not to relate what they had seen to anyone, except when the Son of Man had risen from the dead. So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what rising from the dead meant. "

Our Liturgy of the Hours prayers this week, Week II, offer us several opportunities for reflection on light.

Evening Prayer I: Antiphon
Jesus took Peter, James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain.
There he was transfigured before him.

Psalm-Prayer:
Let your Word, Father, be a lamp for our feet and a light to our path (Psalm119:105), so that we may understand what you wish to teach us and follow the path your light marks out for us.

Antiphon:
His face was radiant as the sun, and his clothing white as snow.

Office of Readings, Antiphon I:
Lord, our God, in splendor and majesty you are clothed, wrapped in light as in a robe (Psalm 104:1-2).

Morning Prayer: Psalm I
We bless you from the house of the Lord
the Lord God is our light. (Psalm 118:27)

And the (Alternative) Concluding Prayer:
Father of light,
in you is found no shadow of change,
but only the fullness of life and limitless truth.
Open our hearts to the voice of your Word
and free us from the original darkness that shadows our vision.
Restore our sight that we may look upon your Son
who calls us to repentence and a change of heart,
for he live and reigns with you for ever and ever.

Amen.

This week, let your LIGHT sparkle and shine!

Lenten Light I

Yesterday was the First Sunday of Lent.

In the Liturgy of the Hours, we begin our Lenten prayers and readings with the psalms, prayers, and antiphons of Week I. The Psalm-Prayer after the first psalm of Sunday Morning Prayer is absolutely one of my favorite prayers. I have it hand-written and keep it in a place I can find whenever I want it. This is the prayer:

Father, creator of unfailing light, give that same light to those who call to you.
May our lips praise you; our lives proclaim your goodness; our work give you honor,
and our voices celebrate you for ever.

Lovely. To pray for light.

As have so many saints who have gone before us, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, bids us to pray for light. In his book, Mother Teresa: In the Shadow of Our Lady, Fr. Joseph Langford, MC, writes:
"God communicates himself in giving his gifts. Everything God does in our life fills us with him, if we have but eyes to see. Once we have realized this through prayer, we can genuinely help others in their moments of pain and crisis. People need more than our sympathy; they need the light of awareness of God's presence with them. Our faith, developed in prayer, can supply whatever may be their lack in their struggle with faith. Just as Mother Teresa communicated her faith to thousands of those who were struggling on the streets of Calcutta, or drawing their last breath in her Home for the Dying next to Kali Temple, or listening to her speak in Europe and America, so can we share the light we have received. A single flame can set a forest ablaze, and a single word of light, a word spoken in faith and born of prayer, can spread that same light to a soul plunged in darkness and doubt." (pp 65-66, Chapter 7, Contemplatives in the Heart of the World)

"No one who lights a lamp hides it away or places it (under a bushel basket), but on a lampstand so that those who enter might see the light. The lamp of the body is your eye. When your eye is sound, then your whole body is filled with light, but when it is bad, then your body is in darkness. Take care, then, that the light in you not become darkness. If your whole body is full of light, and no part of it is in darkness, then it will be as full of light as a lamp illuminating you with its brightness." Luke 11:33-36

This Lenten Season, pray for light and then share the light that is given, the same unfailing light of the creator. It is not given for us alone, it is given to be set out on a lampstand to share with everyone, especially those who are in darkness.

"This little (Lenten) light of mine - I'm gonna let it shine!"

Let your light shine!