Good Friday and Earth Day Combine

“the world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful”  e. e. cummings

There is something profound to me about Earth Day coinciding with Good Friday this year.

Something about the brokenness, the passion, the finality, the sense of doom and dread… the humanity of the crucifixion mixing with the raw way we are a part of creation… that our ‘being of dirt’ is mixed with the Earth.

"The earth was once molten rock and now sings operas."  Brian Swimme

This Earth Day, this Good Friday, may we discover once again how dependent we are on God and ALL of God’s creatures.  May we open ourselves anew to how we are being invited to interact with ALL of creation, for we are related to all.

Cindy

What’s evil for the hawk is the mouse because, you know, the mouse is quick and gets away but I did this one realization every scientist goes through at one point… if you gave the hawk power, the power of God, the first thing the hawk might do is to slow down the mouse. But then the hawk would lose it’s speed. And then if you slow the mouse all the way down, so it can just barely move, the hawk would lose its flight. So that in a weird way the tension between those two say natural enemies is what gives birth to their beauty. So I definitely feel that the tension we have right now within the human community in particular — that those are ultimately going to be resolved with a deeper harmony and a deeper appreciation for one another.
Brian Swimme, MeaningofLife.tv interview (2007)

Message from cindygaris@oasismin.org

Lighting a candle for Japan...

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Ash Wednesday and 'Horton Hears a Who'

I got smudged this morning at 7am.  I have made it a practice to attend an early service in my area, because evenings are crazy at our house and we typically do not go to an Ash Wednesday Service as a family. 

 

The pastor had a beautiful reflection about how on Ash Wednesday, even with all the cleaning agents we have, dust has its day... how dust is at the center of the universe and a part of our story from the beginning.  That we are creatures of the earth given life by the breath of God.

So, I am now dusty. 

 

And I have to tell you that all of this conversation about dust, along with the reading from Joel (2:1-2,12-17), had me thinking of Dr. Seuss's 'Horton Hears A Who.'  (Yes, I know, my brain is a scary place to live sometimes...)  Well, you know, in the story, Horton the elephant hears a sound from a dust speck.  He is trying to save the dust speck because people around him think he is crazy for believing that there is any life on this tiny speck. Horton, however, realizes that an entire community resides on the dust speck, and, well,  "a person's a person no matter how small." 

 

When I read or hear the passage in Joel, "blow the trumpet in Zion; sound the alarm on my holy mountain..." and so on, I am reminded of how Horton is trying to convince all of the Whos on the dust speck to make noise.  They are to make as much noise as they possibly can, because no large being other than Horton can hear them.  Joel, like Horton, is inviting all of the inhabitants of the land to turn from what they are doing and focus on God to be saved. 

 

Perhaps, we too, in this season, as dusty as we are, are invited to (re)turn and shout, "We are here! We are here!  We are here!" with our whole hearts.  Perhaps then, God, whom Joel reminds us "is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love," will continue to heal our hearts and the earth... the dust from which we came and shall return.

 

 

Rev. Cindy Garis

Executive Director

Oasis Ministries for Spiritual Development

419 Deerfield Road

Camp Hill, PA  17011

(717) 737-8222

cindygaris@oasismin.org

 

Explore our transformational programs at www.oasismin.org

 

Upcoming Events

2010-2011 Program Guide

March 19: The Spiritual Art of Discernment
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March 22: Spirituality for the Second-Half of Life
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April 5: Group Spiritual Direction Training
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April 11-12: 'Living Poetically' with Kent Groff at Kirkridge
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April 29: Poetry As Prayer
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May 2: Exploring Spiritual Direction
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June 10: Annual Merton Retreat Day
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August 21-28, 2011:
Southwest Pilgrimage
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September 18 -25, 2011:
Canadian Canoe Trip
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December 11, 2011:
Oasis Benefit Concert
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May 13-24, 2012:
Celtic Pilgrimage to Iona
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