Take a look

Invite

Silent,

Still,

Silent,

Still,

Come Lord Christ.

Encounter

"I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one."

- John 17:20-21a

Reflect

The art of asking for others can be difficult. The art of asking for someone who you do not know yet, and who does not exist, at least in the physical sense can be even more difficult. Today we find Jesus continuing his prayer and he is praying for us. He is praying for all people who believe, throughout all time. He is praying for our unity.

First of all, I think that we get from this short passage that it is a good idea to pray for our future. While being present to the now is most important, we also need to look forward to our tomorrow and those that come after us. What is our prayer for the next generation, the one not even born yet?

Second, the theme of unity takes center stage here. We so often can get our feathers ruffled over the issues that we need not. If we look at what we agree upon first and foremost and bear each other up in prayer, unity is possible. Starting from the place of encounter with God is always good. We each are called to discern how we will live out our lives, so we must be there for each other. We need to ask questions when we disagree, but as a way to grow more deeply in unity and not to condemn or convince. Listen and see what truth you may hear.

Pray

Take a minute and pray for unity and pray for the future.

Stations 1-2

The First Station

Jesus is condemned to death.

We gratefully remember and praise you, Jesus, because your life teaches us how to live as your disciples.

After you have been taken into custody, Jesus, by the Roman occupation forces, you are whipped, crowned with thorns and derided mercilessly. Though wrongfully accused, you absorb the condemnation of political authority and the approving nods and ridiculing shouts of your own people. No one speaks up for you!

(Silence)

Revenge is in vogue when prisoners are captured by the military. Being corralled and detained before questioning is traumatic. While being questioned, the prisoner is at the mercy of the interrogator who most often is at liberty to use varied forms of psychological and physical pressure to extract information. Beyond those dehumanizing tactics, five years ago the U.S. deported Afghan prisoners – some as young as 14 and 15 years-of-age - thousands of miles away from Afghanistan to the American naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, to endure not only imprisonment without legal representation but also the excruciating treatment of confinement to cages while shackled and with no opportunity to communicate with each other, let alone their
families. They have been judged and found guilty without trial. No one speaks up for them!

As long as we remain sheep, we overcome. Even though we may be surrounded by a thousand wolves, we overcome and are victorious. But as soon as we are wolves, we are beaten: for then we lose the support from the Shepherd who feeds not wolves but only sheep. – John Chrysostom

The Second Station

Jesus accepts his cross.

We gratefully remember and praise you, Jesus, because your life teaches us how to live as your disciples.

You have, Jesus, with us in mind absorbed all the humiliation and violence begun when humanity initiated cruelty as a means of dominating others and implementing control over them. War seems to always find means to justify some violent end – and to declare heroes in conquest and killing. You put the lie to that philosophy in accepting your cross and making nonviolence the only way to peace.

(Silence)

There are noble moments in war when individuals sacrifice their lives to save others. There are countless testimonies of such goodness amid the hellish mayhem of grenade, mortar and rifle fire. But such heroism is also evident in natural cataclysms and accidental mishaps. A civilized people do not require war in which to exemplify heroic behavior. Such energy can be channeled into social justice endeavors like ameliorating hunger and poverty, advocating for wrongfully incarcerated individuals and coming to the aid of disasters’ victims.

Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometime hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism… – Martin Luther King, Jr.

Reflections by: Rev. Sebastian L. Muccilli

Presence

Invite
Let us remember… that we are in the Holy Presence of God.
Let us remember… that we are in the Holy Presence of God.
Let us remember… that we are in the Holy Presence of God.

Encounter in the Word
After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, ‘Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people,* to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed.
‘I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.
John 17:1-8

Reflect
Have you ever felt a little off? I like to use the term “funk” to describe those times when something just seems to be not quite right. I think that we all have felt this way from time to time. In our faith life we can feel like we are in a funk as well. We can feel like God is more a construct of our imaginations than a reality in our lives.
In Jesus prayer today, he tells us a little about what kind of life he wants for us. Jesus came to give us a life to be lived. It is a life that is eternal. Elsewhere, Jesus tells us that he came that we “might have life and have it abundantly.” In today’s reading, Jesus tells us that this life comes from knowing God.
To know someone is to have spent time with them. The more time you spend with someone, the more you will get to know them. The people that we know the most are those that we share our own life with as well. They are the ones we go to when we have a question, a struggle, a hope, a fear, something to celebrate or something to mourn. The people that we know the most, are those that we spend time with, just hanging out.
To know God is to have a relationship with God. It is to share our life with God and actively engage God throughout our day. It means that we remember that we are in the Holy Presence of God every moment of everyday.
Take time today to pause and just remember that God is with you.

Prayer
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every man who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.

Lent!

It’s Lent! Hurray! It has finally arrived! Although, with all of this snow outside, it doesn’t quite look like Lent. The word "Lent" is derived from Old English lencten, meaning 'spring', the lengthening of days after winter is over. So as Christians our observance of Lent then is an observance of a season And like any season we meet it where we are, in our own lives. This is important to remember, because as the somewhat clichéd statement goes, “we are all on a journey.”

So this time of ‘spring’ in our life will be different than it was last year. We have progressed in journey and so this must be taken into account. So what do we do with Lent then? I would venture to suggest that we do more than just give up chocolate or other sweets. I think that we need to take a lesson or two from Agriculture. Yes, you read that correctly, farming has something to teach us about Lent. Lent is a time for spiritual renewal, a time when we take care to tend the soil of our souls just a farmers tend the soil of their fields, in preparation for the harvest. But what does this look like?

Well in the spring time, if my memory serves me, famers do some tilling, fertilizing and some sowing. Perhaps we can do these very things this lent as well. Let’s start will tilling. We all have things in our life that keep us from growing in our faith and growing closer with those around us. It is in naming these habits that we begin to till them up and make room for something new to be planted. Perhaps this Lent we can take time to see what is keeping us from communion with God, our family, friends and even strangers. Once identified, we can make a renewed effort to change these habits. Making a private confession, or spending sometime with a spiritual director or guide will help can help with this.

Fertilizing comes next, which is the adding nutrients to the soil so that the crops can grow. Our soul needs nutrients as well. We can feed our faith, with prayer, worship, service to others, giving to those in need, sharing, practicing gratitude and a host of other ways. These all provide a place where the seeds of faith can grow and we can grow closer to God and our community around us.

Lastly, this Lent we can sow some good seed in our souls. The seed, which I suggest, is the seed of Scripture. Take time this Lent to spend a bit more time encountering God in the stories of the Bible. The stories of the Bible are a great help in growing in faith. We can start by finding our own story in the stories of Scripture. Where do we relate with the individuals whose lives we read about? What must they be feeling and when have we felt this way? Connecting with these stories of faith will help us on our own journey of renewal.

I am so glad that Lent is here! It is about repentance and fasting, but much more about celebrating the new life that we find through faith!

Bishop's Bash

Bishop's Bash was a great time to meet and great young people from around the Diocese of PA.