In this time of the Pandemic, we have our good days and our bad days. Our minds, bodies, and souls are navigating a surreal amount of societal and personal challenges each and every day.

It’s important and healthy to name our joys and gratitude, but it is also important that we name our down days and grieve the changes that are overtaking us in waves. Tension builds up and it’s good for our bodies and souls to name and authentically feel it all. Every Easter Day needs a Good Friday, you can’t have one without the other. We all carry our joys and our sorrows as well.

I cried most of yesterday… my flood of tears fell with the cold rain. As I drove through the pouring rain, I saw the line of our good neighbors standing in the rain at Hannafords, six feet apart, patiently waiting to buy groceries. I prayed in thanksgiving for all of our essential workers who are literally saving lives every day.

I then went down Emery Lane to StCs to pick up mail. Suddenly I was overcome with grief. Lent is almost over and Holy Week approaches. It’s been weeks since I’ve seen and hugged our friends who wander in and out of safe harbor.

It was so hauntingly quiet in our once lively and always good-spirited sacred space that I burst into tears. I walked toward the Table and I wept. As I walked around inside, the building echoed with laughter, singing, and tearful prayers. The sweet scent of all our feasts wafted through the air and with great thanksgiving I noticed that we’re all set up for our next coffee hour. There are palm fronds arranged at the Table and hand sanitizer is standing at the ready, waiting for our return.

As I left St. C’s, I noticed one fir branch lying on the slate sidewalk leading into the church and I blessed it, “All Glory, Laud, and Honor,” indeed. This is our palm branch to wave this year, fir branches cut from our yards and held high in the palms of our hands.

Then I turned toward home and I took a fitful nap. I got back up, and read our stunningly poignant Palm Sunday readings for our @St.C’s podcast to be posted on our website on Sunday. Life goes on, Holy Week awaits. Perhaps, God willing, it will be the most stunningly powerful Holy Week ever as we all walk the Way of the Cross toward Easter Day and into Eastertide.

We’re all trying to stay connected the best ways we can. We can’t do it all, all the time. Sometimes we are exhausted and drained by it all. Sometimes we’re enormously energized. Sometimes we’re at peace with it all. Some of us are falling ill, some of us are struggling to pay bills, some of us are working extra hours, some of us are utterly alone, some of us are raising families, some of us miss our friends, some of us are thriving, some of us wonder what will happen next. We’re all so close to each other and yet so far away. Our energies are at once bursting and flagging very quickly in these days of essential actions and confinements…

We are One in Spirit. As we discover and name our bliss and our sorrows, we connect with others as best we can, we lift it all up to God for blessing. Together, we carry on with gratitude in the sure and certain hope of each new day.

Sending lots of love in Christ to all⚓ Day by day we’re getting through it together.

Psalm 31:9-16
In te, Domine, speravi

Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble; *
my eye is consumed with sorrow,
and also my throat and my belly.

For my life is wasted with grief,
and my years with sighing; *
my strength fails me because of affliction,
and my bones are consumed.

I have become a reproach to all my enemies and even to my neighbors,
a dismay to those of my acquaintance; *
when they see me in the street they avoid me.

I am forgotten like a dead man, out of mind; *
I am as useless as a broken pot.

For I have heard the whispering of the crowd;
fear is all around; *
they put their heads together against me;
they plot to take my life.

But as for me, I have trusted in you, O Lord. *
I have said, “You are my God.

My times are in your hand; *
rescue me from the hand of my enemies,
and from those who persecute me.

Make your face to shine upon your servant, *
and in your loving-kindness save me.”

Fear Not
mjh+