Green Patches

Creation's Hymn

We've been singing this morning, Greenpatchdog and I.    Do feel free to hop over to my other blog to read all about it and to'The Ship,'   if you fancy adding your own 'earworm' to the mix. 

Poultices and sticking plaster

 

Another thought-provoking post today from Franciscan Ponderings. I love his likening the healing power of Christ in the Eucharist to a poultice, quoting from the medieval  The Epistle of Privy Counsel.

 

'Take good and gracious God, just as he is,

and without further ado

lay him on your sick self  just as you are,

for all the world as if he were a poultice.

For touching God is eternal health.

You are touching his very being,

his own dear self, no more, no less.'

 

 Thanks to the vagaries of the sacristy rota, I seem to have spent a fair amount of time over the last weeks counting out communion wafers - an activity which oddly enough, I find to be very  calming and conducive to reflection. 

 When I left my previous church a few years ago, and went searching for a new 'home,' one of the first things I was looked  for was a place where celebration of the Eucharist was central - weekly,if not daily.  As  this coincided with my journey into TheThird Order, where the Eucharist is the focus of our prayer and way of life, it became even more of an imperative. At least the field was narrowed - if I'd ever harboured thoughts of changing denomination, this was a staying point.

The heart of our prayer is the Eucharist, in which we share with other Christians the renewal of our union with our Lord and Saviour in his sacrifice, remembering his death and receiving his spiritual food.

-       From the Principles  of the Third Order, Society of St Francis

Already -  as I began the slow process of personalising the order's rule  to fit my circumstances  - I could see it shaping my decisions and way of life.  This is where the poultice image really speaks to me, I think.  During the last  months or so at Oldchurch, that limbo time where I withdrew from all that I'd been involved in in that community, piece by painful piece, both mentally and in actuality, the one straw I clung to, if you like, was Holy Communion.  It was the one constant, a place where I could try, at least to simply 'be' with God.  To let God draw out the poison.  It's an apt analogy. Funnily enough, in some writing I did for 'Newchurch' I've likened them to a sticking plaster - a giant one; a reference to the space I've been given to just 'be' without too many (or any!) demands or expectations.  A place where we embody the love of  Christ. Well, most of the time, anyway! And yes, the Eucharist is celebrated. 

 

 

 

 

 

Blogging up and down like this

Welcome to Green Patches on this bright and sunny summer's afternoon.  An especial 'hi' to those Shippies  who've dropped in via a thread on all things blog. I hope you've managed to gain some inkling as to what  on earth a Franciscan tertiary is, and if not, at least had a good laugh. 

 

 

 

 

Do not worry

 

Weekend Fisher asks "What Bible Verse are you?"  Which  verses really speak to you personally, encapsulate your call?  I was about to come over clever and counter the question with another one: about  Francis of Assisi - "Consider the lilies..." yes,  very appropriate. The verse that I associate with him though is:

"Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."

Isn't that more Francis?

Oh...yes...what were you asking? "Answer the question?" OK then - (this is so like one of those addictive "What Muppet character are you?" quizzes that turn up in the blogosphere with monotonous regularity!) Bible verse? Hmmm....? Errr... "Do not worry." Now where could that have come from? A quick trawl of the colander-like depths of the Greenpatch memory and  an even quicker one of Biblegateway reveals...ta dah...! Yes, "Consider the lillies..."  How embarrassing!  Could be I've more Franciscan traits than I thought.

 

Moving on....hastily - a question for readers, especially anybody who's chanced on this blog via TSSF.  I've referred  before now to tertiary Anne Spalding's challenge to Third Order members to explore what a non-prose -based commentary on our Principles might be like. 

"Franciscan life, as I understand it, is a whole

 

life, not solely word-based. So what I would like to see is some Third Order groups

 

explore what a non-prose-based commentary on our Principles might be like ...

 

music, action, poetry, drawings and paintings ... What would you do?"

 

Tomorrow some of us  intend to ask fellow tertaries  to do just that, (no, they've not been told anything about this).  Quite a challenge. It'll be interesting to see what people come up with.

So to you , gentle reader;  "What Would You Do?"  For purposes of bloggery, prose is permitted.  (I've never yet seen a commenter responding in music or dance). I'd love to hear some of  your ideas.

 

 

Take, eat...

 

ὁ τρώγων μου τὴν σάρκα καὶ πίνων μου τὸ αἷμα ἐν ἐμοὶ μένει κἀγὼ ἐν αὐτῷ
whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. (John 6:56)

Thanks to Maggi Dawn for her reflections on Corpus Christi here.  Funnily enough, I'd just rushed in with a wholemeal loaf fresh from the market tucked under my arm.  I was busy chomping my way through a giant doorstep spread with blackcurrant jam as I opened my feedreader. (the Other Half's diet excludes bread atm hence the bread-shaped hole in Yours Truly).  So her reflections on the nuances of τρώγων (eat) struck home. The prospect  of tucking into the rather 'sad', anaemic-looking 50 pence reduced to clear sliced loaf from the freezer simply doesn't appeal.  

 

 

 

Pondering Franciscan Spirituality

Alongside ballroom dancing, quite a few visitors to Greenpatches seem to arrive here via a search for Franciscan spirituality. Obviously, I'm not the only one out there trying to pin down that (sometimes) elusive something or other.  It's always good to discover other souls out there, often far wiser than myself, who are pondering and trying to live out a similar path.  So, a happy discovery  - a newish blog: Franciscanponderings  who says:

 

Like a many-faceted diamond giving off different colours and hues as it is turned in the light, so the unsearchable riches of God encountered in Christ are reflected in the great variety of Christian approaches to the spiritual way. Each spirituality has its own tone and unique flavour, with its own particular emphases. I hope in ths blog to share a taste of the Franciscan contribution to the quest of the human heart for what will refresh our soul and give light to our path.

 - to read more, link here

Thank you for sharing your ponderings. I'm looking forward to listening to what you have to say.

 

Lifelong companions and brothers

 

"They were like paired birds of Franciscan brown. If Brother Julian was gardening in front of the friary, Brother Adrian weeded in the back. If Adrian was driving the van, Julian sat by his side. Preparing the altar for chapel, chopping wood for kindling, exulting in ice cream at the Twist & Shake, the identical Riester twins were together, always.

 

Here, then, were two shy men, surrounded by scholars, discouraged from speaking, uncertain what to say if given the chance, and yet confident that this was their calling. “They were definitely second-class citizens, and not always treated well,” said Michael Riester, a cousin and a former Franciscan. “But they channeled it, always, spiritually.”"

 - Twins United in Faith and Purpose from the New York Times on the 92 year-old indentical twins, from Bonaventure University, who died  on the same day in a Florida hospital.

 

 

 

Slow, slow...Reprise of the 'D' Word

"God is the lead dancer and the soul is the partner completely attuned to the rhythm and patterns set by the partner. she does not lead, but neither does she hang limp like a sack of potatoes." (Thomas Merton, quoted in Listening to the Music of the Spirit: The Art of Discernment, by David Lonsdale: Notre Dame, IN: Ave Maria Press, 1992)

 

For all those readers, who, according to stats are reaching 'Greenpatches' via a search for 'Ballroom Dancing,' I thought it about time to revisit  an old post: 'Listening to the Music of the Spirit: The Dreaded 'D' Word.'    Now with fresh clips. Enjoy.

Pilgrimage Companions Part 2 - Return of the Midges

In case anybody thinks I should be reaching for the halo polish after the last blog post, do feel free to pop over to Musings.  Call it Franciscan joy, if you like!

Pilgrimage Companions

It wasn't only feathered friends  that we encountered on our recent pilgrimage. Once we'd crossed the border into Scotland, these hairy though friendly beasties featured largely.  As for sheep - (and who would have guessed how fascinating they can be; I tell you, all life was there), twixt Northumberland and Argyll, we spotted so many thousands of them, that, theoretically speaking at least, we should never again suffer  any problems with insomnia!

So to our Grand Tour; I've jotted down a few fledgling thoughts about the trip over on my Musings blog and some odd...(very odd) reflections on the legacy, so far of our journeyings for me personally.

Which is where our  hirsuite Highland cattle enter into the picture. The connection between them and running amok with a paintbrushful of heritage sage and buttermilk will likely seem rather tenuous to the uninitiated. To this struggling contemplative it's making increasing sense.   Daisy, Ermintrude,  Charlie or Hamish, and my good self, have one trait in common - we ruminate; we chew the cud, constantly and, in my case often confusingly, to the detriment of my prayer. It leads to the Dreaded Distractions.  Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with ruminating. In fact, proponents of holy reading (Lectio Divina) liken the second stage of the process (meditatio) to just that. I doubt, though, that they intended it to take on all the characteristics of a cloud of highland midges descending on an unsuspecting hiker!  

 

I'm sure I've mentioned here that activities like singing help me to focus in. Now,whether struggling to keep upright in St Columba's Bay has anything to do with it, but since returning home, I've also begun to discover a renewed satisfaction in creative activities, especially those like the gardening and DIY. Who would have thought that a mundane job like trellis painting could free up my mind and enable me to meet with God. 

Now, if I was only one of those Christians of a particular flavour, I could now declare: "The Lord spoke to me and said: 'Get thee hence to Robert Dyas and Wilkos, whereat thou wilst find a veritable corncupia of colours. Choseth thou a couple of (suitably restrained shades; this is suburbia after all), get thee hence  to thine abode and reneweth thou thine garden furniture'"

" But Then The Lord in his/her wisdom waiteth until the first coat hadst been applied, before sending a week's worth of rain." 

Oh well.