'Poem selection' for the week -- "Causing an Accident":
The moon builds its tower
Sisyphean project
Like a velvet landscape
a velvet Elvis above the booth
I want to arrive this way
like resurrection
in front of you but not
Casual on a curb
trapped in a beam
almost crossing in front
of every moving vehicle
A long pause
A breath
Skin feathered over bone
silvering and bright
We want it to happen this way
A sudden capitulation
giving way to flesh
The secret plot revealed
Innocent face with eyes wide
whites showing
before the bump
I ride in my body’s hearse
We are circling the block
We are made entirely
by confiscation
We are waiting
for love to save us
something borrowed
an oxymoron
or absolute truth
-- Sarah Bartlett
From the author:
“I wanted to write a poem that examined the fine line between salvation and disaster. Specifically in the rare moment when love arrives. For me, it’s always a hot tangle—a little shocking, a little beautiful, and a little cataclysmic.”
Friday, March 31, 2017
Thursday, March 30, 2017
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Preparation
I've noticed...when I have to prepare for something, that I also need to be proactive about it in other ways, too, like considering what I eat, what I take in, what I need to think about (or not think about). I've realized that the thing I will be doing is impacted by how I treat myself in advance. This can be something big, like getting in shape for a big hike or event, or something small like remembering what to eat for lunch because of my workout tonight, getting ready for a presentation, or even simply just meeting with another person.
I've noticed this with regard to involvement with others, too. I need to be clean, in my spirit, when I know I will be in a situation that will require something from me, for the benefit of someone else. In other words, I won't be able to listen as carefully or identify as much what love could look like, if I've been lazy or have compromised myself in other ways ahead of time.
I wonder, too, about the broader implications are of this. When, for example, could I not be prepared for the possibility of my need to be clean or ready for something I don't know about (as opposed to preparing just for the things I do know about)? What if such preparation is more of a way of living, than simply a short-set of preemptive actions tied to any particular activity or event. Besides, what am I really assuming, if this were not true?
What if being prepared isn't as much only a kind of selective 'getting ready' as it is a kind of learned on-going responsiveness to what is going on around me, within me?
I've noticed this with regard to involvement with others, too. I need to be clean, in my spirit, when I know I will be in a situation that will require something from me, for the benefit of someone else. In other words, I won't be able to listen as carefully or identify as much what love could look like, if I've been lazy or have compromised myself in other ways ahead of time.
I wonder, too, about the broader implications are of this. When, for example, could I not be prepared for the possibility of my need to be clean or ready for something I don't know about (as opposed to preparing just for the things I do know about)? What if such preparation is more of a way of living, than simply a short-set of preemptive actions tied to any particular activity or event. Besides, what am I really assuming, if this were not true?
What if being prepared isn't as much only a kind of selective 'getting ready' as it is a kind of learned on-going responsiveness to what is going on around me, within me?
Tuesday, March 28, 2017
Credit
No man will make a great leader who wants to do it all himself or get all the credit for doing it.
Do not look for approval except for the consciousness of doing your best.
-- Andrew Carnegie
I find something refreshing about people from other eras who at least spoke about, if not practiced, the timeless traits of good character. I don't, in fact, know much about how this man lived, but it strikes me that simple words like these, fashionable in some circles today, have been discovered and manifested throughout history to both the benefit of those around them and posterity. They remain valuable to the extent that they inform again how to live in our times.
Do not look for approval except for the consciousness of doing your best.
-- Andrew Carnegie
I find something refreshing about people from other eras who at least spoke about, if not practiced, the timeless traits of good character. I don't, in fact, know much about how this man lived, but it strikes me that simple words like these, fashionable in some circles today, have been discovered and manifested throughout history to both the benefit of those around them and posterity. They remain valuable to the extent that they inform again how to live in our times.
Monday, March 27, 2017
Sunday, March 26, 2017
New Lens
If you wear glasses, you likely often forget that they’re even there! Only when you take the lenses off do you realize how much your capacity to see is informed by the lens through which you are seeing. When we talk about metaphysics we are speaking of a specific lens by which we have tended to perceive reality. Like glasses that we’ve grown accustomed to but are no longer strong enough, we need a “system update” in our Christian tradition. I believe the Trinity is our necessary new lens.
When we look at the Trinity from a metaphysical standpoint rather than simply a theological standpoint, it’s not so much about persons in relationship as it is about a process by which the world is constructed and maintained.
The vast majority of the world’s metaphysical systems are binary. They work on the principle of paired, equal opposites. We see great archetypal polarities that are somehow held in balance: male/female, dark/light, conscious/unconscious, good/evil, action/being. Our dualistic minds feel comfortable in that kind of binary swing. Binary systems prefer symmetry and come to resolution in stasis or stillness.
My hunch is that Christian metaphysics are not binary—as traditional religious metaphysics are—but ternary (having three parts). This is precisely because of Christ and the Trinity.
Ternary systems have three independent forces coming together to form something new, a fourth thing. Perhaps the simplest example is a braid. You need at least three sections of hair for a braid to hold; the braid is then a new creation. The interweaving of threeness results in something that didn’t exist before. It is not just a swinging back and forth between two old things that were already there, but a drive into a brand new dimension.
While a binary system is by nature stable and symmetrical, a ternary system is asymmetrical and innovative. Unlike a pendulum, it cannot come to equilibrium within its own orbit; it seeks stability in a new plane, through a resolution that is at the same time a new arising. It corkscrews its way through time, matter, form—whatever plane is at hand—in a riot of uncertainty and new combinations, the whole of which is the fullness of divine reality.
I believe that Christianity has, from the start, been a ternary swan in a binary duck pond. Once the ugly duckling has been correctly identified as a baby swan, we begin to see valuable clues for healing the schism between theology and metaphysics and for tapping into a ternary system’s inherent aptitude for dynamism, change, and process. That, I believe, is the real reason for paying more serious attention to this obscure principle of the Trinity.
-- Cynthia Bourgeault
When we look at the Trinity from a metaphysical standpoint rather than simply a theological standpoint, it’s not so much about persons in relationship as it is about a process by which the world is constructed and maintained.
The vast majority of the world’s metaphysical systems are binary. They work on the principle of paired, equal opposites. We see great archetypal polarities that are somehow held in balance: male/female, dark/light, conscious/unconscious, good/evil, action/being. Our dualistic minds feel comfortable in that kind of binary swing. Binary systems prefer symmetry and come to resolution in stasis or stillness.
My hunch is that Christian metaphysics are not binary—as traditional religious metaphysics are—but ternary (having three parts). This is precisely because of Christ and the Trinity.
Ternary systems have three independent forces coming together to form something new, a fourth thing. Perhaps the simplest example is a braid. You need at least three sections of hair for a braid to hold; the braid is then a new creation. The interweaving of threeness results in something that didn’t exist before. It is not just a swinging back and forth between two old things that were already there, but a drive into a brand new dimension.
While a binary system is by nature stable and symmetrical, a ternary system is asymmetrical and innovative. Unlike a pendulum, it cannot come to equilibrium within its own orbit; it seeks stability in a new plane, through a resolution that is at the same time a new arising. It corkscrews its way through time, matter, form—whatever plane is at hand—in a riot of uncertainty and new combinations, the whole of which is the fullness of divine reality.
I believe that Christianity has, from the start, been a ternary swan in a binary duck pond. Once the ugly duckling has been correctly identified as a baby swan, we begin to see valuable clues for healing the schism between theology and metaphysics and for tapping into a ternary system’s inherent aptitude for dynamism, change, and process. That, I believe, is the real reason for paying more serious attention to this obscure principle of the Trinity.
-- Cynthia Bourgeault
Saturday, March 25, 2017
The Busier You Are, the More You Need Quiet Time
In a recent interview with Vox’s Ezra Klein, journalist and author Ta-Nehisi Coates argued that serious thinkers and writers should get off Twitter. It wasn’t a critique of the 140-character medium or even the quality of the social media discourse in the age of fake news.
It was a call to get beyond the noise.
For Coates, generating good ideas and quality work products requires something all too rare in modern life: quiet.
He’s in good company. Author JK Rowling, biographer Walter Isaacson, and psychiatrist Carl Jung have all had disciplined practices for managing the information flow and cultivating periods of deep silence. Ray Dalio, Bill George, California Governor Jerry Brown, and Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan have also described structured periods of silence as important factors in their success.
Recent studies are showing that taking time for silence restores the nervous system, helps sustain energy, and conditions our minds to be more adaptive and responsive to the complex environments in which so many of us now live, work, and lead. Duke Medical School’s Imke Kirste recently found that silence is associated with the development of new cells in the hippocampus, the key brain region associated with learning and memory. Continue here.
-- Justin Talbot-Zorn & Leigh Marz
It was a call to get beyond the noise.
For Coates, generating good ideas and quality work products requires something all too rare in modern life: quiet.
He’s in good company. Author JK Rowling, biographer Walter Isaacson, and psychiatrist Carl Jung have all had disciplined practices for managing the information flow and cultivating periods of deep silence. Ray Dalio, Bill George, California Governor Jerry Brown, and Ohio Congressman Tim Ryan have also described structured periods of silence as important factors in their success.
Recent studies are showing that taking time for silence restores the nervous system, helps sustain energy, and conditions our minds to be more adaptive and responsive to the complex environments in which so many of us now live, work, and lead. Duke Medical School’s Imke Kirste recently found that silence is associated with the development of new cells in the hippocampus, the key brain region associated with learning and memory. Continue here.
-- Justin Talbot-Zorn & Leigh Marz
Friday, March 24, 2017
Cake
'Poem selection' for the week -- "Cake":
Look, you
want it
you devour it
and then, then
good as it was
you realize
it wasn’t
what you
exactly
wanted
what you
wanted
exactly was
wanting
-- Noah Eli Gordon
Look, you
want it
you devour it
and then, then
good as it was
you realize
it wasn’t
what you
exactly
wanted
what you
wanted
exactly was
wanting
-- Noah Eli Gordon
Thursday, March 23, 2017
By Accident
Most of us live our lives by accident -- we live it as it happens. Fulfillment comes when we live our lives on purpose.
-- Simon Sinek
Quit holding on to your love of
waiting to find your purpose;
give it away freely and
purpose will find you.
-- Bob Goff
-- Simon Sinek
Instagram: bobgoff
Quit holding on to your love of
waiting to find your purpose;
give it away freely and
purpose will find you.
-- Bob Goff
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
Receptivity
When do we receive truth? Many such questions are best answered by the asking of another question. Perhaps something like, when does soil receive rain?
When does soil receive seeds? When does truth start to grow? Here, this seems to happen most often when the 'ground' has been plowed, when it is softened, when it is open. Otherwise, rain (and truth) seems to just run off the surface to the side.
So how do we become receptive to truth? We can do some of the tilling ourselves, often with life's help, by how we choose to live. Or, God can till us (also, often with life's help)...sometimes simply from the consequences of our own hardness or lack of receptivity.
What makes us receptive? Or, perhaps another way towards the question, what makes us hard?
When does soil receive seeds? When does truth start to grow? Here, this seems to happen most often when the 'ground' has been plowed, when it is softened, when it is open. Otherwise, rain (and truth) seems to just run off the surface to the side.
So how do we become receptive to truth? We can do some of the tilling ourselves, often with life's help, by how we choose to live. Or, God can till us (also, often with life's help)...sometimes simply from the consequences of our own hardness or lack of receptivity.
What makes us receptive? Or, perhaps another way towards the question, what makes us hard?
Tuesday, March 21, 2017
Misery & Abundance
The selfishness of man creates misery. The selflessness of God creates abundance.
Monday, March 20, 2017
March Madness - On To The Sweet Sixteen
...more pics here. And then, Michigan went on to land a spot in the 'Sweet Sixteen'!
Sunday, March 19, 2017
Mercy Anywhere, On Our Knees
When prayer is authentic, it will always lead to actions of mercy; when actions of mercy are attempted at any depth, they will always drive you to prayer.
-- Richard Rohr
Saturday, March 18, 2017
SM Brunch 22: Best Players, Curiosity, Knowledge
Another Saturday Mornings Brunch:
The best players have curious minds.
-- ESPN Interview
****
Curiosity is the path to enlightenment. Certainty is the path to ignorance.
****
Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.
-- Confucius
****
Our experience with life is always creating opportunity; opportunity for us to know (and experience) something more; more deeply, more truly. We have a choice; to shut it down or to open ourselves more and more to it.
****
...like these kids:
The best players have curious minds.
-- ESPN Interview
****
Curiosity is the path to enlightenment. Certainty is the path to ignorance.
****
Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance.
-- Confucius
****
Our experience with life is always creating opportunity; opportunity for us to know (and experience) something more; more deeply, more truly. We have a choice; to shut it down or to open ourselves more and more to it.
****
...like these kids:
Friday, March 17, 2017
Spaces
'Poem selection' for the week -- "Spaces":
I do not know how
she felt, but I keep
thinking of her—
screaming out to an empty street.
I had been asleep
when I heard a voice
screaming, Help!
and frantic, when I opened my door.
I remember her shoulders
in the faded towel I found
before she put on my blue sweats
and white T-shirt. Call 911
please, she said.
When the officer arrived
I said, I found her there after the—
But she said,
No, that wasn’t what
happened.
What must be valued
I’m learning,
in clarity and in error,
are spaces
where
feelings are held.
Here—in a poem?
And elsewhere
-- Jenny Johnson
From the author:
“I tried to write a poem of witness. Then I decided that, for me, the more honest poem was the one about what a witness can’t know about another person’s experience.”
I do not know how
she felt, but I keep
thinking of her—
screaming out to an empty street.
I had been asleep
when I heard a voice
screaming, Help!
and frantic, when I opened my door.
I remember her shoulders
in the faded towel I found
before she put on my blue sweats
and white T-shirt. Call 911
please, she said.
When the officer arrived
I said, I found her there after the—
But she said,
No, that wasn’t what
happened.
What must be valued
I’m learning,
in clarity and in error,
are spaces
where
feelings are held.
Here—in a poem?
And elsewhere
-- Jenny Johnson
From the author:
“I tried to write a poem of witness. Then I decided that, for me, the more honest poem was the one about what a witness can’t know about another person’s experience.”
Thursday, March 16, 2017
Wednesday, March 15, 2017
Return
We all need to return at times to the foundation of our lives, to help us keep track of what we are building...of what is truly being built.
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
Genuine People
We’ve all worked with people who can’t stop talking about themselves and their accomplishments. Have you ever wondered why? They boast and brag because they’re insecure and worried that if they don’t point out their accomplishments, no one will notice. Genuine people don’t need to brag. They’re confident in their accomplishments, but they also realize that when you truly do something that matters, it stands on its own merits, regardless of how many people notice or appreciate it.
Genuine people know who they are. They are confident enough to be comfortable in their own skin. They are firmly grounded in reality, and they’re truly present in each moment because they’re not trying to figure out someone else’s agenda or worrying about their own.
-- Travis Bradberry
Genuine people know who they are. They are confident enough to be comfortable in their own skin. They are firmly grounded in reality, and they’re truly present in each moment because they’re not trying to figure out someone else’s agenda or worrying about their own.
-- Travis Bradberry
Monday, March 13, 2017
Everyone Wants To Change
Everyone wants to change, but change demands desire and discipline before it becomes delightful. There is always the agony of choice before the promise of change.
-- Larry Lea
-- Larry Lea
Sunday, March 12, 2017
Experience God's Presence
The question for me is not whether there’s a point to giving things up during Lent, but whether I should ever stop fasting from all that numbs, dulls, and deadens me to life, all of life, as it is today—the good and the bad. Fasting makes me willing to try. Continue here....
-- MarÃa de Lourdes Ruiz Scaperlanda
The interior experience of God’s presence [through prayer] activates our capacity to experience God in everything else—in people, in events, in nature.
-- Thomas Keating
-- MarÃa de Lourdes Ruiz Scaperlanda
The interior experience of God’s presence [through prayer] activates our capacity to experience God in everything else—in people, in events, in nature.
-- Thomas Keating
Saturday, March 11, 2017
SM Brunch 21: Focus, Pay Attention, Distract Us, and Being Awake
More Saturday Mornings Brunch:
It takes an incredible amount of focus, on every series, to be successful in this game.
-- Eric Spolstra, Coach of Miami Heat
****
What we pay attention to is of ultimate importance. If we pay attention to the wrong things, we may just miss the right things.
What if all Satan can really do is distract us from truth? ...he is really good at it.
****
We make ourselves sleepy when we end up avoiding our sense of creation through our comforts, diversions, and ways of relating to others.
Creation has been designed to keep us awake. In particular, to be awake to God.
****
It takes an incredible amount of focus, on every series, to be successful in this game.
-- Eric Spolstra, Coach of Miami Heat
****
What we pay attention to is of ultimate importance. If we pay attention to the wrong things, we may just miss the right things.
What if all Satan can really do is distract us from truth? ...he is really good at it.
****
We make ourselves sleepy when we end up avoiding our sense of creation through our comforts, diversions, and ways of relating to others.
Creation has been designed to keep us awake. In particular, to be awake to God.
****
Instagram: mountainafflicted@taylormichaelburk
Friday, March 10, 2017
Poem for My Son in the Car
'Poem selection' for the week -- "Poem for My Son in the Car":
The wipers sweep two overlapping hills
on the glass, we are quiet against the
squeaky metronome as we often are
before the concerns of the day well up.
Today: Is it dark inside my body?
The wet cedar’s dark of green-gone-black
of damp earth mending itself,
a pewter bell rung into night’s collected
sigh, choral and sleep-sunk.
Dark as the oyster’s clasp
in its small blind pocket
and the word pocket a tucked notion
set aside in-case-of.
Inside there are vestibules, clapboards
trapdoors, baskets,
there is cargo,
there is the self carrying the self
sprint, trodden—
nowhere does it not—
and mournful as a spine bowing to wood
you carry your actions; inside
is cave and concern,
everything purposeful
heartwood, clockwork, crank and tender
iron in the mountain belly,
all the hidden things breathing.
Outside of and woven into, you are
the knowledge you can’t touch
the desire you can’t locate,
unnameable questions unnameable answers,
source and tributary
and the rivers that hold you
beneath. Your darkness
lives in that potential,
snowblind
aurora
pulse
shore.
-- Jennifer K. Sweeney
From the author:
“The car is something of a truth portal for my son; from the steady rhythm and blurring landscapes, and with both of us pointed forward, budding philosophies, fears, and confessions arise. When he asked me this question at age five, I was moved in such a way I kept peeling back its layers—what might it mean to understand the darkness of the body. The more I turned over his question, the more darkness felt akin to tenderness.”
The wipers sweep two overlapping hills
on the glass, we are quiet against the
squeaky metronome as we often are
before the concerns of the day well up.
Today: Is it dark inside my body?
The wet cedar’s dark of green-gone-black
of damp earth mending itself,
a pewter bell rung into night’s collected
sigh, choral and sleep-sunk.
Dark as the oyster’s clasp
in its small blind pocket
and the word pocket a tucked notion
set aside in-case-of.
Inside there are vestibules, clapboards
trapdoors, baskets,
there is cargo,
there is the self carrying the self
sprint, trodden—
nowhere does it not—
and mournful as a spine bowing to wood
you carry your actions; inside
is cave and concern,
everything purposeful
heartwood, clockwork, crank and tender
iron in the mountain belly,
all the hidden things breathing.
Outside of and woven into, you are
the knowledge you can’t touch
the desire you can’t locate,
unnameable questions unnameable answers,
source and tributary
and the rivers that hold you
beneath. Your darkness
lives in that potential,
snowblind
aurora
pulse
shore.
-- Jennifer K. Sweeney
From the author:
“The car is something of a truth portal for my son; from the steady rhythm and blurring landscapes, and with both of us pointed forward, budding philosophies, fears, and confessions arise. When he asked me this question at age five, I was moved in such a way I kept peeling back its layers—what might it mean to understand the darkness of the body. The more I turned over his question, the more darkness felt akin to tenderness.”
Thursday, March 09, 2017
Intuitive Mind
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant.
-- Albert Einstein
So, we can choose after all...distraction doesn't have to win.
-- Albert Einstein
So, we can choose after all...distraction doesn't have to win.
Wednesday, March 08, 2017
Economy of Distraction
There is now, more than ever, a whole economy of distraction which, among other things, conditions us to reactivity rather than proactivity.
Tuesday, March 07, 2017
Monday, March 06, 2017
Doesn't Always Knock
Opportunity doesn’t always knock; and those people who tend to sit around and wait for it for it often miss the opportunities that are waiting if they just put in a little effort. This sometimes also manifests as someone waiting around for the “easy button” scheme that will help them do the thing.
As Thomas Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” Successful people understand that opportunity is fueled by work and putting oneself out there.
-- Bernard Marr
As Thomas Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.” Successful people understand that opportunity is fueled by work and putting oneself out there.
-- Bernard Marr
Sunday, March 05, 2017
Honesty & Weakness
I am convinced the main requirement in prayer is honesty....
-- Philip Yancey
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
-- Romans 8:26
-- Philip Yancey
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
-- Romans 8:26
Saturday, March 04, 2017
SM Brunch 20: Truer, Effect, Enough, Wither, and The Jewel
More Saturday Mornings Brunch:
The truer you become in being you, the less you and your personality need to enter the room.
-- Sally Blount
****
Our 'effect' is more like a wake than like a splash.
****
You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.
-- Maya Angelou
****
Though leaves are many, the root is one;
Through all the lying days of my youth
I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun,
Now may I wither into the truth.
-- W. B. Yeats
****
The truer you become in being you, the less you and your personality need to enter the room.
-- Sally Blount
****
Our 'effect' is more like a wake than like a splash.
****
You alone are enough. You have nothing to prove to anybody.
-- Maya Angelou
****
Though leaves are many, the root is one;
Through all the lying days of my youth
I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun,
Now may I wither into the truth.
-- W. B. Yeats
****
Friday, March 03, 2017
Harrowing
'Poem selection' for the week -- “Harrowing”, from this most wonderful reflection:
The plow has savaged this sweet field
Misshapen clods of earth kicked up
Rocks and twisted roots exposed to view
Last year’s growth demolished by the blade.
I have plowed my life this way
Turned over a whole history
Looking for the roots of what went wrong
Until my face is ravaged, furrowed, scarred.
Enough. The job is done.
Whatever’s been uprooted, let it be
Seedbed for the growing that’s to come.
I plowed to unearth last year’s reasons—
The farmer plows to plant a greening season.
-- Parker Palmer
The plow has savaged this sweet field
Misshapen clods of earth kicked up
Rocks and twisted roots exposed to view
Last year’s growth demolished by the blade.
I have plowed my life this way
Turned over a whole history
Looking for the roots of what went wrong
Until my face is ravaged, furrowed, scarred.
Enough. The job is done.
Whatever’s been uprooted, let it be
Seedbed for the growing that’s to come.
I plowed to unearth last year’s reasons—
The farmer plows to plant a greening season.
-- Parker Palmer
Thursday, March 02, 2017
Reality
There is my reality - the one I live in, the one that I modify because of the way it needs to accommodate the needs of those around me. And, there is the one I would live in if my present one wasn't accommodating, where I would choose more just from what I prefer for myself. Then, there is my anti-reality, the one I know about, but don't live in myself; where I see (or just know) the needs of people who live very different lives from the way I live mine (there are multiple versions of this one).
...and then there is one that I am mostly unaware of, but certainly seems to exist.
If each person has these, there are many realities. So many. Too many. And, in what combination, are all these realities really real?
...and then there is one that I am mostly unaware of, but certainly seems to exist.
If each person has these, there are many realities. So many. Too many. And, in what combination, are all these realities really real?
Wednesday, March 01, 2017
Ash Wednesday: Grace and Demand
On Ash Wednesday, we are reminded to pray anew:
God of grace and demand, you challenge us to reclaim our baptismal identity as those whose lives are built on your call and your promises--not on the easy, seductive forces around us. Stir our hearts that we may engage your transforming word anew and rediscover its power to save. Amen.
-- Walter Brueggeman, A Way Other Than Our Own
Here is a helpful description of the role of this historical day:
Ash Wednesday: The Church As a Midwife
God of grace and demand, you challenge us to reclaim our baptismal identity as those whose lives are built on your call and your promises--not on the easy, seductive forces around us. Stir our hearts that we may engage your transforming word anew and rediscover its power to save. Amen.
-- Walter Brueggeman, A Way Other Than Our Own
Here is a helpful description of the role of this historical day:
Ash Wednesday: The Church As a Midwife
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