9 He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
he breaks the bow, and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.
10 ‘Be still, and know that I am God!
I am exalted among the nations,
I am exalted in the earth.’
" By the rivers of Babylon—
there we sat down and there we wept
when we remembered Zion.
On the willows there
we hung up our harps.
For there our captors
asked us for songs,
and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,
‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion!’ " Psalm 137:1-3
"How could we sing the Lord’s song
in a foreign land?
If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand wither!
Let my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth,
if I do not remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem
above my highest joy" Psalm 137:4-6
In the cool, dark pre-dawn, I sit at my table and listen to the fog and last night's rain condense into droplets that splat against the leaves of the big oak tree outside the open door. Crickets churr shrilly, a last chorus before sunrise. Close by in the creek bottoms, I hear the hoot of a sleepy owl...once, twice...four times. I'm reminded to be still, to be silent, to listen and hear God's silent prayer. A cow bellows; a crow caws for its friend. In the distance I hear a car wind up through its gears headed for work. Under it all, God's voice is there. Even through the world's daily business, it can be heard if I stop and get quiet, if I go inside and listen with my heart open. In the midst of crossing things off my 'to do' list, working through the final preparations for my trip, and worrying about things both in my control and beyond it, God reminds me that if I'll stop, be still and listen, I can hear his magnificence in the splat of a rain drop, the soft hoot of a sleepy owl, in his caw and his bellow. Listen! 
"Come and see," Jesus invites in John1:39 and 47. Yes, come and see what Jesus is all about. Again in Matthew 11:28 he says "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens..." Again he invites. Part of my weekend at Cursillo was about this invitation. I was invited to learn more about Christ and living a Christ-centered life. I was given the tools to do this through piety, study, the sacraments, worship, song and prayer. I explored grace; I crafted ideals for my life and prayed them into reality. I learned to look through the wavy, opaque and convoluted ways of the world to see the crystal clear image of Christ beyond them. I relinquished control of my agenda and my world that weekend to come to Christ as my true self created by God the Father...vulnerable, open and willing. It's a simple invitation that we find so hard to accept....Come!
Yesterday as Lucie and I were on our walk, we heard a strange crying sound. We had heard it briefly the day before at the same place on the road. It sounded a bit like a child in distress. I immediately began listening closer...was it a child? If so, should I investigate? Could it be the youngster who lives up the hill in the old farmhouse? I began making my intervention plan.. Then I listened closer. No, not a child. Maybe an amorous cat? I could ignore that. Maybe it's one of the neighbors calves, maybe it's caught someplace. More thoughts swirled in my head. I started formulating another plan. As we turned the corner, I was still deep in thought, pondering next steps, when out of the woods popped a herd of little goats! Surprise! Lucie barked, I yelped, the goats bleated and cried before running away down the road. I quickly recovered my composure, grabbed Lucie, and soon the little guys came back to have their heads rubbed and to nuzzle for food. Surprise...that funny sound was goats! Who would have thought that? I'd never seen goats anywhere along this road.
Today was the culmination of nine months of study for the 17 young people who were confirmed this morning during Pentecost services. You may remember a blog post that I wrote some months ago about being asked to mentor one of these aspiring Confirmands. Elizabeth assured me that I could do this; I was not convinced, but after praying about it and discussing it further with Elizabeth, I decided to take a leap of faith and give it a try. Over the past few months, Lexi and I have gotten to know one another and talked about how each of us came to be Episcopal and to St. Tim's, she knows my favorite color and I know hers, and we've discussed different ways to pray. She told me how the class tried various positions for prayer including laying face down on the floor and that everyone promised to keep their eyes closed so no one would feel self-conscious. I told her about Centering Prayer and she found that intriguing. We attended a worship service together at our local Jewish synagogue. I spent a Saturday in February with Lexi and the rest of the Confirmands and their mentors on retreat at Wesley Woods. Elizabeth was so right; I not only did this mentoring thing, I loved every minute of it. And no surprise...I feel like I gained so much from my time with Lexi and the other kids; gained more than I gave in fact. 
"....it moved my soul. Suddenly I 'got it;' the epiphany of why these early churches were so lavish and overdone. This was the sanctuary of the poor, the one place they could come & not only see the beauty of God's creation, but also find His presence in their otherwise miserable lives of poverty, hard work, and suffering. And their alms and work helped make this glorious place. I see the Church as a buffer, a meeting place to tone down the excesses and extravagances of the wealthy and provide beauty and sanctuary for the poor. I felt moved and privileged to share this great cathedral with the countless souls, both rich and poor of Paris who have worshipped here since 1163. As the people came forward for Communion..... I thought of the thousands who have come before trodding the millenium-old tiles seeking forgiveness for transgressions common to all of God's people, rich or poor. In God's eyes---all are equal."Yes, I think God is pleased whenever people create beauty in His honor. I think He is pleased when each gives of his time or talent or money to produce that beauty. Were there excesses and extravagances in the Church? Absolutely....that's what the Reformation was all about. But in Paris in the 12th and 13th centuries, the Reformation was 300 years away; God was pleased.
