With a Little Love, Easter Service, April 12, 2020

It is a strange Easter not to be gathering together, hugging one another as we pass the peace, singing joyfully together as we end the long contemplative season of Lent. But we gather together in spirit, and in listening to this podcast, full of hope filled scriptures, beautiful music, teachings from the work of Brother David Steindl-Rast and Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie. No matter the state of the world, all is measured by the state of our hearts. Let your be filled with joy this day. For Sabbath is a time of harmonious atmosphere where everything and everyone is a delight. And this is particularly true on the Sabbath morning of Easter. May love and grace abide.

“Turn your heart towards the light,
Don’t stay in the dark,
No need for matches, there’s not need,
Love will be your spark.
Gather all your courage,
Gather all your faith,
Reach out with a hopeful heart,
And find your rightful place.

With a little love, with a little love, with a little love,
You can shine, shine, shine,
With a little love, with a little love, with a little love,
You can make the whole world shine. ”

— With a Little Love, Lyrics, Candice Bist

Graced Attention, Holy Saturday Vigil

Throughout the Lenten season at the Shelburne Primrose Pastoral Charge, we have been working our way through Macrina Wiederkehr’s wonderful book Seven Sacred Pauses, Living Mindfully Through the Hours of the Day. The keeping of the hours is an ancient practice in the Christian faith, but all faiths have ways of breaking down the day into set time periods so as to be reminded to stop and consider larger matters, to rest briefly, to pray, to walk, to consider, to remember. This podcast includes readings of Macrina's teaching and prayers, as well as a time to practice vigil on an Easter weekend when the world itself is in a kind of vigil like suspension. Bruce's music will offer you place for soulful reflection. The podcast is just under 30 minutes. A lot can happen in 30 minutes of devotion. 

“Prayer for the Night Watch 

You stand alert at the gate of our hearts.
Tutor us in the fine art of keeping vigil that we may lovingly watch over the family of the earth with your own eyes of compassionate awareness.
With you as our guide, perhaps our loving vigilance will enable us to become healers in a world of violence.
Be present in the lives of those whose darkness is not a holy darkness. Be with those who never get to experience the therapeutic healing of the Great Silence. We surrender our own plans and enter your great plan for peace upon the earth. Give us attentive, peaceful hearts as we watch with you through the long dark night. We Bless You,  O Sacred Darkness.”

— Macrina Wiederkehr, Seven Sacred Pauses, Living Mindfully Through the Hours of the Day, pg. 39

Gotta Serve Somebody, Good Friday Podcasts

There isn’t usually a line up for a Good Friday Service. Everyone wants to come to the party on Easter morning. Not so much the bloody mess that is Good Friday. And, well, the name is problematic. Still, it is a story that needs telling once a year, if not more often, because we keep repeating the same stupidness over and over, crucifixion after crucifixion. Perhaps in this great pause that we are currently experiencing, we will hear something new in an old tale. Offered below is a traditional service - well as traditional as we can manage, anyway - consisting of a complete read through of the passion story from the Book of John. The contemporary service is a personal journey with Bruce’s and my art and music. We ponder what it means to ‘stand at the foot of the cross’ as we interact with those around us. Every blessing during this strange time, with our sobering yet illuminating story. Please feel free to download and use in any way that will guide us forward a more peaceful world.

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“You’re gonna have to serve somebody, yes you are,
You’re gonna have to serve somebody.
Well, it may be the devil, or it may be the Lord
But you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”

— Bob Dylan

Hunger of the Heart, Palm Sunday Podcast, April 5, 2020

Palm Sunday is forever in my consciousness associated with floppy construction paper palm leaves, leaving the scriptural story caught in a kind of never never land of childish thought. But these days that will not do. So, here’s what I hope is a fresh interpretation of the palm parade for those willing to listen with their hearts. Communion will be served to all those willing to be fully present.

“As we navigate our own uncertain times together, may a thousand flowers of sanity bloom, each valid so long as it is viable in buoying the human spirit it animates. And may we remember the myriad terrors and uncertainties preceding our own, which have served as unexpected awakenings from some of our most perilous civilizational slumbers.  ”

— Maria Popova, Brain Pickings

Love Never Fails, March 29, 2020

Here is our first Sunday Morning Podcast from the Shelburne/Primrose Pastoral Charge in Ontario. You are so welcome to download it for what every purpose would make the world a more delightful place. As well, we offer the four pieces of original music within the podcast to be downloaded and used for any podcasts/services/ministries/initiatives that you may be doing. May grace, even in the midst of challenge, be the gift we continue to give and receive.

“Hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch, feeling lucky. It is an axe you break down doors with in an emergency. Hope should shove you out the door, because it will take everything you have to steer the future away from endless war, from the annihilation of the earth’s treasures and the grinding down of the poor and marginal... To hope is to give yourself to the future - and that commitment to the future is what makes the present inhabitable.

Despair demands less of us, it’s more predictable, and in a sad way safer. Authentic hope requires clarity—seeing the troubles in this world—and imagination, seeing what might lie beyond these situations that are perhaps not inevitable and immutable.

What we dream of is already present in the world.”

— Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark