Join us for a DIY Quiet Day on April 2nd (Good Friday).
If you are at Caroline Furnace: You are welcome to spend as long as you like today in
prayer, meditation, and solitude. We invite you to walk the trails, sit by the lake, Passage Creek, or the spring, rest at a campfire circle or the steps of St. John’s Chapel, or pray the labyrinth.
If you are at home: We invite you to spend time today in prayer, meditation, and (hopefully) solitude. We invite you to walk your backyard, neighborhood, or nearby park, sit by a calming spot, or rest in a comfortable outdoor space.
During our quiet time today, as we have just finished celebrating
Women’s History Month and are now in the midst of Holy Week and in
particular Good Friday, we celebrate both modern women theologians
and the women who dared to remain at the cross as Jesus died.
Opening Prayer:
O Mothering God, we thank you for all the cherished women in our lives and in our
histories: mothers, sisters, friends and neighbors. We especially thank you for the wisdom
of women theologians who enrich, expand and deepen our understanding of you. We also
thank you for the women who stood at the foot of the cross with Jesus as he died - his
mother, Mary the wife of Clopas, Mary Magdalene and Salome. Their courage and love
witness to the incredible power of the female spirit. May women across the globe continue
to be empowered, knowing the love you offer. Amen.
Scripture Reading: Mark 15:33-41
When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “Listen, he is calling for Elijah.” And someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. Now when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was God’s Son!”
There were also women looking on from a distance; among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. These used to follow him and provided for him when he was in Galilee; and there were many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem.
Contemplative Reflection: from Roberta C. Bondi’s To Love as God Loves:
Conversations with the Early Church (page 106)
“A passion is a strong emotion or state of mind that blinds the one whom it
possesses, making it impossible to see anything or anyone, even God, as it really is.
A passion is destructive by definition. It takes away choice; it makes the
unwholesome look wholesome, and the good insipid. Ancient Christians insisted
that our God is and must be in this sense without passions.
Being without passions, God sees us exactly as we are, that is, with the clarity
of love. Only God can see us so well and so deeply, so “reasonably,” for to see
reasonably is to love. Because God is without passions, we need not stand in God’s
presence in fear. The passions of pride and anger, fear of the future, even the
passion of vainglory have no place in God. God is not enslaved by avarice, lust,
depression, or pride. Because God is without passions, God does not see us through
a haze of uncontrollable longing that warps even eternal vision. God sees us, and
God loves us utterly, as we are loved by no one else. . . .
This passionlessness is not just one quality of God among many that are equal
to it. It burned in the heart of God in the crucifixion. As Jesus suffered blinding
pain, God was not blinded. God saw the cruelty, carelessness, and
misunderstanding that led to the crucifixion, and God knew exactly what God saw.
Only God could see the human hearts of the crucifiers, and so the words Jesus
spoke, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:24), are the
words of Jesus the human being who was the very image of the God who loves,
humbly and without passion.”
Roberta Bondi is a retired Professor of Church History at the Candler School of Theology at Emory in Atlanta. She was an amazing mentor for many women going into ministry.
Closing Prayers:
Take a slow, deep breath. As you inhale, realize you are receiving God’s Divine Breath as total gift.
Exhale slowly. The Spirit of God, she dwells in us all that we may live. Amen.
OR
We glory in your cross, O Lord,
and we praise your holy resurrection,
for by your cross joy has come into the world.
May God be merciful and bless us;
may the light of God’s face shine upon us.
Let your way be known upon earth,
your saving health among all nations. Amen
Get a printable / shareable copy of DIY Quiet Day here: