Quotation of the Week: On Shakespeare

This is my week "off" between the online Shakespeare classes I teach to homeschooling families through Brave Writer.

As of Friday, I officially finished teaching the Shakespeare Family Workshop in which I teach moms how to expose their kids to Shakespeare's life and works. We start off with an online Shakespeare Scavenger Hunt and then study the Elizabethan Theatre, including making drawings or models of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. In the second week, we learn about Shakespeare's language and poetry. Then we spend a week on Shakespeare's comedy plays, then a week on his histories, and then the final week on his tragedies, highlighting one play of each type and one speech/dialogue from each of those plays. I include lots of YouTube links to different actors' performances of the scenes as we study Much Ado About Nothing, Richard III, and Hamlet.

Next week (May 20), I'll be starting to teach our High School Shakespeare Class which will be reading and discussing Much Ado About Nothing. We'll study Shakespeare's life and language in Week One, then we'll read and discuss the play for the next two weeks, and in the final week we'll watch the Kenneth Branagh film version and also write a Final Writing Project on one of four topics.

So right now I have the above image as my laptop wallpaper, and I've also selected a quotation about Shakespeare as my Quotation of the Week:

"The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he really is very good, in spite of all the people who say he is very good." ~Robert Graves 

So I'll enjoy my week of preparing for the High School Shakespeare Class as I re-watch the Kenneth Branagh movie and collect discussion questions and information on Much Ado and also finish up the last posts from the Shakespeare Family Workshop.

With "Will" power,

Celebrating Ascension Day

Today is Ascension Day, forty days after Christ's Resurrection, when He gave His final earthly encouragement and directions to His disciples before Ascending to the right hand of the Father. Today's Epistle reading is from Acts 1:

1 In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach, 2 until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. 3 He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me; 5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”

6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.” (English Standard Version)

The Gospel reading relates the same event, also told by Luke at the close of his gospel account:

50 Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. 51 While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and were continually in the temple blessing God. (ESV)

The Collect from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer is rather formal and convoluted, so I'm using today the Collect from the New Zealand Book of Common Prayer from Father Bosco Peter's Liturgy site:

Eternal and gracious God,
we believe your Son our Saviour Jesus Christ
to have ascended with triumph
into your kingdom in heaven;
may we also in heart and mind
ascend to where he is,
and with him continually dwell;
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God now and forever.
Amen.

Father Peters' reflection on Ascension can be read here: Ascension Day.

On Twitter this morning, Father Peters noted that Ascension Day is a holiday in several European countries, such as France, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, etc. Yet we in America hardly even know of this Biblical holy day, at least among American evangelicals. Part of Eastertide which lasts until Pentecost (just ten more days!), Ascension is obviously noted in Scripture as being forty days after Christ's Resurrection. This holy day has been celebrated since the early years of the Church, as the Catholic Encyclopedia notes:

The observance of this feast is of great antiquity. Although no documentary evidence of it exists prior to the beginning of the fifth century, St. Augustine says that it is of Apostolic origin, and he speaks of it in a way that shows it was the universal observance of the Church long before his time. Frequent mention of it is made in the writings of St. John Chrysostom, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and in the Constitution of the Apostles. The Pilgrimage of Sylvia (Peregrinatio Etheriae) speaks of the vigil of this feast and of the feast itself, as they were kept in the church built over the grotto in Bethlehem in which Christ was born (Duchesne, Christian Worship, 491-515). It may be that prior to the fifth century the fact narrated in the Gospels was commemorated in conjunction with the feast of Easter or Pentecost.... Representations of the mystery are found in diptychs and frescoes dating as early as the fifth century.

You may read the full article from the Catholic Encyclopedia here: Feast of the Ascension.

I just don't really understand why American evangelical churches do not celebrate these Biblical festivals, or at least Pentecost if not Ascension. Pentecost lands on a Sunday every time, so there's really no excuse not to at least mention it...if not read the Scriptures recounting the gift of the Holy Spirit to the waiting disciples and perhaps even preach on the subject. Yes, every day of our earthly existence should be a celebration of what Christ has done for us, and every Sunday should indeed be a celebration of the Resurrection power and love of Jesus. But noting and celebrating these other Biblical holy days seems like a wonderful idea to me, one in which we can live in the footsteps of our Risen Lord.


And, finally, the Collect for Ascension Day from The Book of Common Prayer 2011 which Father Keith Acker modernized and I helped to edit:

ALMIGHTY God, as we believe your only eternal Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, ascended into heaven; Grant that we may also ascend into heaven in heart and mind until, at the last, we may dwell with him forever; Who lives with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and always. Amen.

Reprint from the Archives, 2009 (with the exception of the BCP 2011 Collect)

Enjoy a blessed Octave of the Ascension,

Quotation of the Week: On Music

San Diego's own Steam Powered Giraffe

For the last few weeks, I've become enamored of popular music once again. It's been years since I truly listened to popular music, to new music just hitting the radio waves. For the past few years, I've been listening to music on my iPod, most of which consists of U2, Big Band and Swing music, and 80's classics. I tend to play Billie Holiday or Frank Sinatra while I write, and when I need a pick-me-up, I turn to the Mama Mia! movie soundtrack or some great be-bop music from the 50's and early 60's.

Despite my dislike of most music of the decade, I've also picked up a few 70's favorites, especially "American Pie" and "Bohemian Rhapsody." (But I refuse to admit my junior high and high school crushes on the music of John Denver, Barry Manilow, and Neil Diamond...despite attending their concerts.)  I was also seriously addicted to the Grease soundtrack. Leaving music behind, I have all of the Harry Potter and Twilight book series on my iPod as well (plus Pride and Prejudice and Zombies), so I didn't even listen to music for a couple of years as I focused on audiobooks.

But between Pandora on my phone and desktop and the replacement of the ancient radio in my 20-something year old Corolla, I've started listening to indie and alternative music. A lot of the indie bands are courtesy of Elizabeth who is hipster-ish in her music selections and from the Twilight movie soundtracks, but I've come to love the British indie bands Florence + the Machine, Editors, and Mumford and Sons. Elizabeth and I attended a Florence concert last fall, and she was amazing!! We missed out on getting tixs for Mumford for next month...which disappointed us both greatly.

Now that my car has a radio (and one that tells us what's playing--the song titles and musicians), I've become quite addicted to KPRI out of Encinitas which plays "Then and Now Adult Alternative" music. On my phone, the KPRI app allows me to "Clip" songs I like to listen to later, and my collection so far includes The Clash, Phillip Phillips, Coldplay, Alpha Rev, Goo Goo Dolls, R.E.M., Green Day, and Adele.

My Pandora stations with new music include Muse, Mumford and Sons, Indie Singer-Songwriters, Steam Powered Giraffe, Katie Melua, She & Him, Editors, Florence + the Machine, and Coldplay. Plus I listen to older and other music, including Blossom Dearie (1940's), Katherine Jenkins, John Michael Talbot (Catholic Christian), Tempest (Celtic), Casting Crowns (Christian), Gregorian Chant, Brian Setzer Orchestra (modern swing and big band), Herman's Hermits (1960's), Celtic, Swing, Big Band, Andrews Sisters, Monkees, Beach Boys, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra, 80's Pop, Golden Oldies, British Invasion, 50's Rock 'n' Roll, and U2.

I get quite the eclectic shuffles on Pandora. Right now Muse's "City of Delusion" is being followed by Glen Miller's "Pennsylvania 6-500," followed by Lana Del Rey's "Young and Beautiful," and then "Fun, Fun, Fun" from The Beach Boys and "I'm into Something Good" from Herman's Hermits, and finishing with Artie Shaw's "Begin the Beguine" (I used to play the clarinet myself, so I have a soft spot for Artie), Muse's "Starlight," Paul McCartney's "Maybe I'm Amazed," Cab Calloway's "Minnie the Moocher's Wedding Day," and The Lumineers' "Ho Hey." :)

Yeah, my Pandora shuffles are just a little schizophrenic.

And I love San Diego's own Steam Powered Giraffe (see top photo) with their humorous steampunk style, especially since my niece is friends with several of the band members. Our son Timothy has painted an amazing portrait of one of the band members in persona for his art class.

I'm not a big fan of Christian Contemporary music except for Casting Crowns because of their engagement with popular culture. And I prefer hymns on Sunday mornings for the most part.

So this week's Quotation of the Week is all about music and is something I feel as well. Growing up in a household without Christian music, I was always drawn toward any song that mentioned God: "American Pie," "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show," etc., which also explains why my favorite band is U2 (starting with 2001's All That You Can't Leave Behind; I wasn't much of a fan in the 80's). So Bono's words below strike a chord within me:

"The music that really turns me on is either running toward God or running away from God. Both recognize the pivot, that God is at the center of the jaunt."

~Bono of U2

PS: 5/6/13: John Armstrong of Act 3 Ministries (whom I love because of his true ecumenism of bringing Catholics and Evangelicals into positive, constructive dialog) posted a video of U2 closing a Chicago concert with two of their most clearly Christian worship songs, "Yahweh" (Bono's ode to the hymn "Take My Life and Let It Be") and "40" (which is based on Psalm 40); the worship in Bono's expression is echoed by the audience so palpably. Amazing. Here's the link (the video is about eleven minutes and was posted on a Christian video site): U2 Chicago concert closing.

PPS: 5/6/13: Editors just released the video for "A Ton of Love" from their new album The Weight of Your Love due out 1 July. Here's the link: "A Ton of Love"; I found the lyrics, especially at the beginning of the song, to be reminiscent of U2. ;)

So what kind of music do you listen to?

Musically yours,

Happy 449th Birthday, Will Shakespeare!!

Happy 449^th Birthday, William Shakespeare!!!!

 

William Shakespeare: 23 April 1564-23 April 1616

To mark William Shakespeare's 449^th birthday today, (he was baptized on April 26, 1564, and children at that time were usually baptized three days after birth) and the 397^th anniversary of his death, much celebration is going on in the United States as well as in Stratford-upon-Avon.

When I was in a Shakespeare class in high school (yes, we had an entire semester English elective on Shakespeare available...and it was a very popular class!!), we had a HUGE birthday party for Shakespeare with British food and drink, rather like a high tea. A month beforehand, we had each drawn the name of a fellow student for which we were to make a handmade gift. I remember hemming handkerchiefs in pink embroidery thread with the initials “M.A.” for my recipient, and I still have the floral wreath head-dress strung with ribbons down the back hanging on my bedroom wall…although I don't remember which young man made it for me (or more likely, his mother made it on his behalf, LOL). 

So how is the 449th birthday of the Bard being celebrated?

Celebrations in Shakespeare’s birthplace: Stratford-upon-Avon:

http://www.shakespearesbirthday.org.uk/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-22234956

http://www.stratford-herald.com/local-news/6609-time-to-party-for-the-bard-s-449th-birthday.html

So let’s celebrate Shakespeare's birthday today in our homeschools. Here are some ideas:

·        Have a Talk Like Shakespeare Day (or even just an hour, if that’s all you can handle)

·        Perhaps gather around the table with scones and jam and some Earl Grey tea and read some of Shakespeare’s sonnets aloud (you can find Shakespeare sonnet apps for your smart phone).

·        Read some of Shakespeare’s famous monologues aloud dramatically, perhaps even in costume. Here’s a site with a listing of some of the best single-person speeches, one list for men and one for women HERE. Try performing them for family members and/or friends or at a co-op!

·        Perform a Shakespeare scene as a puppet show or act out a scene in costume; either memorize parts or make copies of the scene for all the actors. Here are some scenesand scripts for kids from the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.: 

·        Watch your favorite Shakespeare play on film (mine is Kenneth Branagh's Much Ado AboutNothing).  Check your local library or Netflix for some excellent titles, and the International Movie DataBase includes some helpful parents guides with advisory content for you along with ratings and information on most film versions.

·        For older kids, check out Michael Woods’ in-depth documentary In Search of Shakespeare which first aired on PBS in 2004. Both the DVD and the companion book should be readily available through most public libraries.

·        Better yet, see a live Shakespeare play as soon as possible. Check out college/university performances near you as they’re usually much less expensive than professional productions. 

                                 

How are you planning to celebrate???         

So, Happy 449^th Birthday, William Shakespeare!!

“So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this and this gives life to thee.”

~Sonnet 18 by William Shakespeare

 With "Will"-power,

  

Quotation of the Week

In celebration of National Poetry Month, I've been posting a quotation about poetry on Facebook every day. My Quotation Journal, which I started in August of 2001 (yes, nearly twelve years ago), is very nearly full; this month I started writing on the final page of the journal.

I have dedicated an entire section of the Quotation Journal to quotations about poetry, and I've been choosing one to share each day. My goal was to post a quotation about poetry for each day of National Poetry Month, but becoming ill last week rather derailed my posting for several days.

Here is today's (Sunday's) quotation about poetry; it's one of my favorites:

"It is the job of poetry to clean up our word-clogged reality by creating silences around things." 

~Stephen Mallarme, French poet (1842-1898)

Isn't that lovely? It's so true--we need "silences around things" in order to truly see and comprehend the depth and breadth and meaning of what is right under our noses. It's not in the big, beautiful events that we see meaning and significance; it's in the ordinary, every-day occurrences that are so easily dismissed in which truth lurks, waiting to be unearthed.

So try to unclog words this week in order to hear the silences and truly comprehend the significance of  the ebb and flow of our daily lives.

Happy Poetry Month!!

Poetically yours,

Poem in Your Pocket Day

Today, April 18, is Poem in Your Pocket Day, part of the celebration of National Poetry Month. The Academy of American Poets has a whole page dedicated to Poem in Your Pocket Day right HERE.

In past years, I have shared e.e. cumming's lovely "in Just--" which has long been one of my favorite poems. Who can deny the deliciousness of his portmanteau words "mud-luscious" and "puddle-wonderful" when describing the childlike joy of an early spring day? (Despite the rather macabre "goat-footed balloonman" who "whistles far and wee.")

In honor of this day, I am tucking a poem in my pocket to share with at least one other person outside of my family.

This poem is by former Poet Laureate Billy Collins whom I was fortunate enough to meet at the Writer's Symposium by the Sea in February, and it's also a fitting poem for celebrating both poetry and spring.

Today

BY BILLY COLLINS

If ever there were a spring day so perfect,

so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze

that it made you want to throw

open all the windows in the house

and unlatch the door to the canary's cage,

indeed, rip the little door from its jamb,

a day when the cool brick paths

and the garden bursting with peonies

seemed so etched in sunlight

that you felt like taking

a hammer to the glass paperweight

on the living room end table,

releasing the inhabitants

from their snow-covered cottage

so they could walk out,

holding hands and squinting

into this larger dome of blue and white,

well, today is just that kind of day.

Source: Poetry (April 2000).

So why don't you tuck a poem in your pocket today and share it? Here are some ideas for celebrating this day, taken from a flyer from poets.org: 

• Hand out poems in your school or workplace
• Teachers: reward students "caught" with a poem in their pocket
• Local businesses: offer discounts to those carrying poems
• Start a street team to pass out poems in your community
• Add a poem to your e-mail footer
• Mail a poem to a friend
• Post a poem on your blog or social networking site (use #pocketpoem on Twitter)
• Check out the Academy's Poem in Your Pocket anthologies for adults and young people at poets.org

And my own idea, especially for homeschoolers (or any family, for that matter): try a Poetry Tea Time as celebrated weekly at Brave Writer (even if today isn't a Tuesday). Set up a lovely tea with real cups and saucers (or at least nice mugs), buy or make cookies or scones, and have your kids bring a favorite poem to the table to share with the family, with everyone sipping tea and enjoying the baked goodies while listening. 

So enjoy Poem in Your Pocket Day...and celebrate the beauty and majesty of poetry!!! 

Poetically yours,

April Is National Poetry Month!!

April is National Poetry Month, and I plan to celebrate all month long!!

In February I ordered and received a free National Poetry Month poster that I plan to hang near our school table and also take with me to our co-op Class Days to share with my writing class. Although they are elbow-deep in research for their MLA essays, we'll take a moment to breathe in and enjoy poetry. 

I hope that you will do the same. Take a moment to read a poem--always ALOUD--but not worrying about what it means or how it is written. Nope. Instead, read a poem for the sheer enjoyment of the artistry of the written word, the music of words rubbing together, the sound of words bubbling from your lips. 

Poetry is magical. 

I love the emphasis this year on epistolary poems: poems as letters and letters as poems. Poets.org has a lovely list of epistolary poems to read if you're interested: Epistolary Poems. I also love seeing letters and poems in the poets' own handwriting--very few literary treasures thrill me more than seeing the actual handwriting of some of my favorite authors and poets, especially their letters. 

Unfortunately, I've been far too busy to write any poems lately; in fact, it's been over a year since I wrote a poem as all of my writing energy has been transferred to the writing of fiction. But I thought I'd share some of my favorite poems here on the blog this month, and I'd love to hear about some of your favorites, too. 

In my Quotations Journal, which I've been keeping for twelve years, I have very few poems copied in their entirety. I copied this one into my journal on April 30, 2002, and it has long been a favorite since I studied it in graduate school with Dr. Irene Williams, a well-known expert in feminism in American Literature. 

So here is Poem 258 from among the over two thousand poems that Emily Dickinson left unpublished after her death. The visual and auditory "heft" of this poem has always appealed to me. 

Poem 258

There's a certain Slant of light,

Winter Afternoons-- 

That oppresses, like the Heft 

Of Cathedral Tunes--

Heavenly Hurt, it gives us-- 

We can find no scar, 

But internal difference, 

Where the Meanings, are--

None may teach it--Any-- 

'Tis the Seal Despair-- 

An imperial affliction 

Sent us of the air-- 

When it comes, the Landscape listens-- 

Shadows--hold their breath-- 

When it goes, 'tis like the Distance 

On the look of Death-- 

~Emily Dickinson

So enjoy National Poetry Month and take the time to breathe in the beauty and truth-telling of poetry, to try to find a way to express your heart and soul through poetry, whether reading or composing it.

Happy Versifying!!

The Death of Our Lord

At noon today, we gathered in the parking lot of Queen of Angels Catholic Church with about a hundred other Christians to walk The Way of the Cross. Catholics and Protestants came together from various churches in Alpine for the Ecumenical Stations of the Cross, something we've participated in for the past seven years. At each of the fourteen white crosses along the western fence of the asphalt lot, pastors from the various churches took turns in reading a passage of Scripture from the Gospels, starting with Jesus Praying on the Mount of Olives to Jesus Is Buried.

After each Scripture reading, the large group of Christians walked to the next cross, Jonathan and Father Acker playing a verse of "Were You There?" which everyone sung quietly until the next reading. Unfortunately, this year I couldn't walk the Stations as usual; I sat along the sidelines watching everyone else walk; fortunately, the microphones allowed me to hear the readings and sing along with the verses. It was a slow, meditative journey through Christ's last human hours as He gave up His life for us. After the fourteenth cross, everyone left in contemplative silence, the mood somber, as it should be.

Throughout Lent, I've been reading through and writing prayers for each day to the Lenten Devotional created by The High Calling. They have also arrived in my e-mail box each day, but I preferred printing them out and writing my own prayer responses on the blank page opposite in the binder I placed the printed pages into. Today's devotional may be read here: The Death of Jesus.

This is my written response, finished at 3:00 PM, traditionally the time of Jesus' death on the cross:

Dear Father,

Today--along ago Friday that we remember and re-live and re-experience each year--Jesus died. In the garden, He struggled for a moment against death, against the burden of the world's sins--past, present, and future--that He was taking upon Himself, against the separation from His disciples and from You. 

Praying with such earnestness that He perspired blood, He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, "Not my will but Yours be done." 

He watched the desertion of most of His disciples; He was confronted by the Jewish and Roman leaders yet spoke barely a word in His defense. He was mocked, ridiculed, spat upon, scourged with whips embedded with glass that ripped the skin from His body. 
Jesus was beaten past recognition.

And He accepted it all without a word. 

Even when the mockery of a crown of thorns was thrust upon His head, blood running into His eyes, down His face, soaking His hair. 

After a beating that would have killed many men, He was forced to carry His own cross through the city to the Place of the Skull, the rough wood leaving huge splinters in his scourged back and arms. After collapsing three times (according to tradition), Simon of Cyrene was forced to help Jesus carry the heavy cross to place where public executions were held outside the city gates. The road was uphill almost the whole way. 

His clothing removed, Jesus was nailed to the rough wooden cross, the symbol of ultimate shame. The nails were six inches long and half an inch in diameter--nails driven through his wrists and a third through his crossed ankles which would bear the weight of his entire body. 

The cross was raised then, and for six hours, Jesus suffered unendurable agony for six hours, from nine in the morning to three in the afternoon: the physical agony of the crucifixion plus the spiritual agony of the world's sins plus the emotional pain of the desertion of His disciples and His Father. He cried out for His Father, "Why have You forsaken Me?"   

His lungs slowly filled with fluid as Jesus drowned in water from His own body. Then at noon the sky darkened for three hours. He forgave those who crucified Him, claiming their ignorance. He forgave those who deserted Him. He gave His beloved mother into Saint John's keeping. He promised paradise to the thief who asked for Jesus' remembrance in heaven.

When Jesus surrendered His Spirit, the earth shook, graves opened, and the dead walked again. The Roman guards trembled and fled in abject fear as the Roman centurion spoke Truth: "Surely this was the Son of God!" 

Tonight I'll attend the second of the Triduum services at Victoria House with Alpine Anglican Church of the Blessed Trinity. Last night we remembered Maundy Thursday, and Father Acker washed our feet. On his knees, his washed our feet, dried them, kissed them, and thanked us for our service to our Lord. It's uncomfortable to have our pastor on his knees before us, doing what seems to be such a demeaning yet intimate act, for washing the feet of guests to a home was reserved for the lowest servant in the household. I can see why Peter freaked out and refused to let Jesus wash his feet at first; it's my first reaction to pull back my foot and not let Father Acker demean himself by washing my foot, sweaty from a day's activities (and with green-painted toenails too!). But through our pastor's act, we see Jesus doing the same for His disciples, commanding them to "love one another."

Tonight we will read the crucifixion from the Gospels, each of us taking the part of the crowd,  demanding "Crucify him! Crucify him!" It brings me to the brink of tears every Good Friday. And then we venerate the cross, taking a moment before a rough wooden crucifix, touching the wooden figure representing Jesus as we remember what He did for us on that Friday nearly two thousand years ago.

Tomorrow night is my favorite service of the whole year: Holy Saturday Vigil. I'll write more about that tomorrow--the most ancient service practiced in the Anglican Church.

Wishing you all a contemplative and Holy Good Friday,

Solemnity of the Annunciation

Today, while also our eldest son's 18th birthday, is the Feast of the Annunciation, now called the Solemnity of the Annunciation. Nine months before Christmas when the Christ Child was born, this  day commemorates the word of the Angel Gabriel to a young Hebrew girl:

We read in the first chapter of the Gospel According to Saint Luke:

²⁶ In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, ²⁷ to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. ²⁸ And he came to her and said, “Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!” ²⁹ But she was greatly troubled at the saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be. ³⁰ And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. ³¹ And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. ³² He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, ³³ and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.”³⁴ And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”³⁵ And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. ³⁶ And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. ³⁷ For nothing will be impossible with God.” ³⁸ And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.

From the Saint of the Day e-mails from AmericanCatholic.org:

The feast of the Annunciation, now recognized as a solemnity, goes back to the fourth or fifth century. Its central focus is the Incarnation: God has become one of us. From all eternity God had decided that the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity should become human. Now, as Luke 1:26-38 tells us, the decision is being realized. The God-Man embraces all humanity, indeed all creation, to bring it to God in one great act of love. Because human beings have rejected God, Jesus will accept a life of suffering and an agonizing death: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends” (John 15:13).

Mary has an important role to play in God’s plan. From all eternity God destined her to be the mother of Jesus and closely related to him in the creation and redemption of the world. We could say that God’s decrees of creation and redemption are joined in the decree of Incarnation. Because Mary is God’s instrument in the Incarnation, she has a role to play with Jesus in creation and redemption. It is a God-given role. It is God’s grace from beginning to end. Mary becomes the eminent figure she is only by God’s grace. She is the empty space where God could act. Everything she is she owes to the Trinity.

She is the virgin-mother who fulfills Isaiah 7:14 in a way that Isaiah could not have imagined. She is united with her son in carrying out the will of God (Psalm 40:8-9; Hebrews 10:7-9; Luke 1:38). 

Together with Jesus, the privileged and graced Mary is the link between heaven and earth. She is the human being who best, after Jesus, exemplifies the possibilities of human existence. She received into her lowliness the infinite love of God. She shows how an ordinary human being can reflect God in the ordinary circumstances of life. She exemplifies what the Church and every member of the Church is meant to become. She is the ultimate product of the creative and redemptive power of God. She manifests what the Incarnation is meant to accomplish for all of us. 

Comment:Sometimes spiritual writers are accused of putting Mary on a pedestal and thereby discouraging ordinary humans from imitating her. Perhaps such an observation is misguided. God did put Mary on a pedestal and has put all human beings on a pedestal. We have scarcely begun to realize the magnificence of divine grace, the wonder of God’s freely given love. The marvel of Mary—even in the midst of her very ordinary life—is God’s shout to us to wake up to the marvelous creatures that we all are by divine design.

So this day, the second day of this Holy Week in which we remember the last week of Jesus' earthly life, His sacrificial death on the cross, and His glorious resurrection from the dead, we also recall the manner of the entrance of our Saviour into the world. The Son of God willingly entered this world as a human infant, living a completely human yet completely divine life, a life without sin. Yet Jesus also experienced what humanity was all about: hunger and thirst, pain and alienation, and also joy and friendship, love and acceptance. He experienced what it is to be truly human; thus, He understands us after walking for thirty-three years upon this earth. I draw comfort from Jesus' earthly life, knowing that He fully understands the trials and tribulations as well as the happiness and joy of our lives. He is not a God far removed from His Creation, but One Who chose to become like His Creation in order to fully understand us...and to save us from ourselves.

Wishing you a blessed Holy Week as we walk in the footsteps of Christ during the last days of His earthly life,

A Fountain Pen...and Quotations of the Week

I was thrilled this week when the lovely Waterman fountain pen (a Hemisphere Stainless Steel) that Keith gave me for my birthday arrived. I was immediately opening my journals so that I could start writing with it, and I just love the gentle flow and excellent control that comes with writing with such an amazing instrument.

My Quotation Journal, which I started in August of 2001, is rather ravaged and very nearly full, but I thumbed through it this afternoon to find a couple of inspirational quotations to spur us onward through the midpoint of this Lenten season.

And these are the two quotations that drew me in:

"Waiting patiently...is the foundation of the spiritual life."
~Simone Weil

"One is not a saint all of a sudden."
~Brother Lawrence, The Practice of the Presence of God

So patience is the theme for this week...which is very helpful for me as I'm not a very patient person. But as "good things come to those who wait," I'm trying to learn patience, not to obtain material "good things" but those "good things" of the Spirit: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control" (Galatians 5.22-23).

I pray that all of you who practice Lent are being greatly blessed, drawn closer to our loving Father through sacrifice and hearts prepared to listen to His still, quiet voice. May we hear His whispers because our minds and hearts are stilled, waiting for His voice to pierce the everyday noise in the midst of the storms of our busy lives.

I wish you all a blessed and holy Lent!