by Kay Stoltz
Lent; a time of reflection and fasting. Particularly fasting. We ask what is in the way of our spiritual growth? What are our guilty pleasures? As we contemplate a fast, we see two views, two sides to every coin, a yin and a yang, a black and a white. For every sin, an opposite virtue.
I propose another approach, a positive one inspired by a writing from Ann Fontaine.
Substitute feasting for fasting.
Consider:
Fast from judgment, Feast on compassion. Judging’s easy, and almost virtuous. Sloppy work, unkempt appearance, surly attitude? Where are their standards? However, if I walked in their shoes? How differently would I look at them?
Feast: I share God’s love and help where I can.
Fast from greed, Feast on sharing
Fast from scarcity, Feast on abundance: I wish I had, why don’t I have . . . poor me. Feast on my blessings, and God’s abundant love, don’t look over the fence.
Fast from fear, Feast on peace
Fast from lies, Feast on truth
Fast from gossip, Feast on encouragement
Fast from evil, Feast on kindness
Fast from anxiety, Feast on patience: We are anxious about St. Catherine’s future, and we worry. Be patient and trust in God.
Fast from apathy, Feast on engagement: Don’t get involved, sit on the sidelines? No, feast on working to make our world better. This world, this church, St. Catherine’s needs every one of us.
Fast from discontent, Feast on gratitude: Our lives didn’t work out as we wished? Feast and give thanks every day for what God has given us, including this day.
Fast from discouragement, Feast on hope
Fast from pride, Feast on humility: I didn’t really want to talk about this one. Humility is not one of my strong suits. This I must feast.
Fast from criticism, Feast on praise: Fast from seeing mistakes. Feast and find the honest effort, the job well done, and heap the praise.
Fast from hatred, Feast on love: Hatred comes in many forms; intolerance, anger, hostility, ridicule, cheating. Feast on God’s Love. Does it shine from us? Do people feel it?
What will be your fast? What will be your feast?
And then the Raven Came
by Laurie Schaad And Then the Raven Came I met a kindred spirit playing in the wind, A wind so wild no other creature was around. I was there on the moraine, 900 feet above the ground, The ground around Wallowa Lake. The wind was oh, so fierce that it would take your breath…
Read MoreEffort
Effort A new essay by Tricia Gates Brown I have conflicted feelings about effort. As a young adult, effort was my mantra. And effort, coupled with an adolescent zest to save the world, was perilous. In my early 20s, I stumbled my way through so many “good deeds,” it is painful to look back. The…
Read MoreLife in the Upper Left Edge
by Lianne Thompson, our Senior Warden and Clatsop County Commissioner Arcadia Beach A doe snaps her head up, as I raise a blind in the front window. Quicker than thought, she whirls and scampers for the forest a few dozen feet away. Lushly green, it swallows her in shadow and safety. I turn to start…
Read MoreBathing
TRICIA GATES BROWN It has been years since I had a shower. By this I mean a shower enclosure in my home. When I built my little house in the big woods, I installed a 100-year-old clawfoot tub. Found on Craigslist, it came from a Victorian house in north Portland and had a cranberry-red exterior.…
Read MoreInvocation: Roar of an Unknown Shaman
Broken Silence by Ryan Pedersen Invocation: Roar of an Unknown Shaman by Laurie Schaad Deep in my molten core I hear you call, Oh overarching ONE, Creator of all life. Your wordless call leads me down, Into this holiest of caves, Into this vast and silent, pulsing womb of earth. Impenetrable darkness covers all. Then…
Read MoreObservations on Grace
by Phyllis Mannan This morning the tides sent waves toward rocks and rippled sand. As I sat, the waves kept coming to me. Near sunset the sun sent a path over waves and wet, puddled sand. As I walked, the path kept coming to me. Sunset by Ann Fontaine
Read MoreHopes, Dreams and Bartlett Pears
by Phyllis Mannan Swallows rose and fell against the blue sky in a haphazard pattern as I walked in our neighborhood. With sun shining on their white breasts, they looked like ashes spiraling above a dead fire—their flight magical and mysterious, as though they knew something I, on the ground, could not know. Like those…
Read MoreRibbons of Faith
by Kay Stoltz “Everything happens for a reason.” We console ourselves and explain life’s mysteries with this simple proclamation. As if there is some “Master Plan” that directs those things beyond our control. One doesn’t have to believe in a Master Intelligence However, most of us do need to believe there is some reason for…
Read MoreWalk by the Sea
by Susan Long My gentle dogs sniff and taste fragments of shell, glistening globs of jellyfish, feathered carcasses of gulls. I tug them on, uneasy with their instinct to know more of what’s near, gazing instead at the shifting sea and zipper spray crossing the waves.
Read More- « Previous
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4