“If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.” ~Meister Eckhart
Grace and peace to each of you, in this Eastertide season, and a deep bow of gratitude to each of you for a wonderful Holy Week! Easter Sunday was simply magnificent. Thank you, Holy Family, for the grace and hospitality extended by everyone!
Over the past 8-10 days, I’ve enjoyed a kind of “second autumn” while running on the local trails. The lovely Beech groves deep in the forests of our neighborhood, especially on longer runs where I reach the spot pictured below, are an opportunity to pause, and pay attention. And this in turn is an occasion to attempt what I’ve learned from many on from my journey in Christian centering prayer and Buddhist mindfulness practice: show up; pay attention; speak my truth (and this can be a deepened, inner self-awareness); and let go of attachment to things I cannot control. The last step, as we know, can be in relation to an infinite variety of issues, including addictive behavior of various kinds, and is at the heart of any 12-step journey. It is at the heart of the Serenity Prayer.
Trail running in the woods near our mountain home continues to teach me to let go of attachment to things I cannot control, and this has in turn had application in many areas of life. These Beech trees, deep in the woods on the Womack Trail, hold on to their leaves until spring—about now, a phenomenon known as “marcescence.” Usually, sometime in March, the leaves will fall, a kind of second autumn, and this is called “abscission.”
Holding on…letting go; this is part of the rhythm of life. I’m doing some of both even now. This past week almost all of the Beech leaves have fallen, providing nourishment for the trees when they most need it. And what finally pushes the leaves off their branches is the subtle nudge of the new leaves, only now beginning to emerge. We are in a liminal season.
It reminds me that even as we say goodbye and say “thank you” to George, and as we begin to turn our attention toward the hiring of a new rector, we are also staying the course, and living into our Baptismal promises as the Body of Christ. And so we are doing both; holding on, and letting go. And during this past Holy Week, especially as we observed the Triduum beginning on Maundy Thursday, we observed the same unfolding; of letting go of Jesus… bearing witness to the fact that we are now the Body of Christ in the world, and holding on to this faithful compassion in the midst of transition. Good Friday can take an infinite variety of forms in our lives, yet we have promise of Easter, and we say “thank you.”
Vicky and I are so grateful for Holy Family, a parish that gave birth to my priesthood many years ago. We came to love this place, and to return often over the years. Now we are at home here and, for a season with the increasingly important work of the laity (I’ll say more about this in a later post) we will work faithfully to find a new rector. And in this “threshold” in-between season, let’s remember this lovely prayer of holding on, letting go, remaining hopeful, and resilient; a prayer, truth told, about Easter resurrection:
“O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry out in tranquillity the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were being cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen”
