Happy Making

I visited Father John today to touch base with him about what we are doing at the community lenten service on Wednesday.  He make me happy.  John is an original soul.   He has this way of weaving the psalms into his meditations.  I imagine it comes from praying the hours.

This year we are working our way to Jerusalem focusing on different geographical regions.  John and I get the Jordan river and the Mount of Transfiguration. John came up with the idea to have a dove fly from the Jordan river valley (at the baptismal font) to the mount of transfiguration (by the tabernacle).  This will be a "Creative Movement" or an interpretive dance with props.  I will play the dove with a puppet on a string. The movement will follow Psalm 91 along with Psalm 84.

I love the Psalms. I think that is part of what excites me about this week's service.  John gave me my first full liturgy of the hours to pray with.  It was the Benedictine Daily Prayer.  What a joy!

Ah the psalms my old friends...

So good to spend time with you again!

This week in the psalms, especially in connection with the liturgy of the hours, has been refreshing. How have they stayed with me? I think phrases do come back. It is like they become helium molecules in my head, bouncing around filling me. I can almost feel them now under my scalp. Each time I sat down with them, the psalms were a Sabbath retreat for me. Engaging Muller this week made that even more pointed. How has this changed the way in interact with people? Here is a story:

Just tonight the couple that is staying with us got some bad news. Becky's sister's recently ex-boyfriend committed suicide tonight. As they were on the phone dealing with their family, I turned to the office of the dead and prayed the evening prayer. I was quietly directing the prayers to the couple in the other room. I found that afterward for hours that I was mourning. The prayers were emotionally intense and continued that way. I was mourning with those who mourn thanks to the grace found in praying the psalms.

Hunger

God, I am hungry!

I haven't eaten in two days. Why? I feel numb and aimless. I feel like I've lost my fight. When it was suggested in a class that we pick a discipline to try, I felt drawn to fasting. I know, it is one I have done many times before, and the idea was probably to try something new - out of the ordinary. I was drawn to it because it seemed like hunger would be appropriate for what I was feeling. Like the line in a bluegrass song I like:

Mr. Engineer reach up and pull the whistle
Let me hear that lonesome sound
For it blends with the feeling that's in me
The one I loved has turned me down

O God, you are my God, I seek you,
my soul thirsts for you;
my flesh faints for you,
as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
²So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary,
beholding your power and glory.
³Because your steadfast love is better than life,
my lips will praise you.
⁴So I will bless you as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands and call on your name.

⁵My soul is satisfied as with a rich feast,
and my mouth praises you with joyful lips
⁶when I think of you on my bed,
and meditate on you in the watches of the night;
⁷for you have been my help,
and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy.
⁸My soul clings to you;
your right hand upholds me.

⁹But those who seek to destroy my life
shall go down into the depths of the earth;
¹⁰they shall be given over to the power of the sword,
they shall be prey for jackals.
¹¹But the king shall rejoice in God;
all who swear by him shall exult,
for the mouths of liars will be stopped.

Psalm 63