Nicholas of Myra will be celebrated this week. In North America, his day is not so special, but in other parts of the world, St. Nicholas Day is the day children get candy and fruit in stockings or shoes left out overnight.
Nicholas was bishop of Myra (in modern Turkey) around 375 or so. We don’t know many details about him, except that he was tortured and imprisoned during Diocletian’s persecutions. In one mythical story it is said he secretly left gold in the stocking of a poor maiden who could not marry because she lacked a dowry. He is known as the patron of seafarers and children, an odd combination, to be sure. The one thing that perhaps connects them is that both groups are dependent---one on their vessels in the midst of the gigantic waves, and the other on adults for their survival and growth. Thus we connect Nicholas to acts of benevolence and protection.
Last year I was part-time chaplain at both Northwestern University Canterbury and St. Gregory’s Episcopal School for at-risk boys in K-8 grades in urban Chicago. I wanted to make connections between these two groups, so I led some Canterbury students to St. Gregory’s to have St. Nicholas Day with the children. One NU graduate student looked very much like a Turkish bishop after we dressed him up for chapel. He led the children in a teaching on St. Nicholas, while other students filled with goodies the shoes that had been left outside the chapel. After chapel, the NU students helped the older class prepare for a Hip Hop Morning Prayer at which they were officiating the next week.
As chaplain at St. Gregory School I had hoped this visit from NU students, the first encounter with St. Nick for most of the boys, would be a special event for the school, as it was. But I had not counted on the college students being moved as well, as I later discovered that they had experienced an inner-city school for the first time in their lives. I am told by NU chaplain Liz Stedman that they still talk about that trip.
While St. Nicholas may be historically obscure, the acts done in his name, of giving and benevolence, powerfully speak to us today. While we may disdain the morphing of the bishop of Myra into a fat man from a mythical North Pole, brought to us from Dutch settlers as Santa Claus, we cannot deny the gifts, both temporal and spiritual, we have both given and received, that speak of love—enduring and divine. Nicholas of Myra fills a place in our hearts that calls us to give to others unconditionally. And if we connect that giving to the ultimate gift given to us by God, then the bishop of Myra, whoever he really was, lives again, showing us a path of peace.
Monday, December 3, 2007
Monday, November 26, 2007
Thanksgiving is gone
The official day of Thanksgiving has come with a little fanfare (mostly at places where food is sold!). What if every day were a day of giving thanks:
- for the anxiety that sometimes finds us, because it reminds us that we are human, and something needs our attention
- for the annoying neighbor or relative, without whom we wouldn't be able to practice forgiveness
- for illness that keeps us humble, asking for assistance from total strangers
- for the rain, in the midst of drought, either spiritual or temporal
Today practice giving thanks for something that perks up your complacency and shows you a new face of God.
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Samuel Seabury
This week we remember the consecration of Samuel Seabury.
The portion of the gospel of Matthew appointed for the commemoration of the consecration of Samuel Seabury is familiar to us:
During the exam we certainly felt “harassed and helpless.” However, at the dinner, we garnered the support and compassion of the entire seminary community, as all of the seminary community, faculty and students alike, we expected to attend the liturgy and dinner following. First and second-year students would watch us closely, and begin their own time of anxiety about the exam. Faculty would commiserate with us about unfair questions asked in their areas of expertise. We knew we were not alone, that compassion abounded for us, like the compassion of Jesus for the crowds.
We are all like the crowds Jesus encountered, harassed and helpless in some area of life, all in need of the compassion of our communities. When you remember the compassion you have received, you become more able to pass that compassion on to others in your midst. I hope this week you can be part of a compassionate presence in your own workplace/dorm/classroom of the “harassed and helpless.”
The portion of the gospel of Matthew appointed for the commemoration of the consecration of Samuel Seabury is familiar to us:
Every year at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, Samuel Seabury’s day is celebrated by the Boar’s Head Dinner, held one week after the General Ordination Exam (GOE) is finished. If you don’t know about it, the GOE is a four-day written exam of 7 substantial essay questions covering the 7 canonical areas of study required of all seminary students for ordination. To say the least, it is a grueling ordeal, especially for some of us older, less physically-resilient students. The Boar’s Head Dinner, a take-off on medieval baronial feasts, complete with Elizabethan liturgy beforehand, was therefore a time of raucous partying for students.Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and
proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and curing every disease and every
sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were
harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.
During the exam we certainly felt “harassed and helpless.” However, at the dinner, we garnered the support and compassion of the entire seminary community, as all of the seminary community, faculty and students alike, we expected to attend the liturgy and dinner following. First and second-year students would watch us closely, and begin their own time of anxiety about the exam. Faculty would commiserate with us about unfair questions asked in their areas of expertise. We knew we were not alone, that compassion abounded for us, like the compassion of Jesus for the crowds.
We are all like the crowds Jesus encountered, harassed and helpless in some area of life, all in need of the compassion of our communities. When you remember the compassion you have received, you become more able to pass that compassion on to others in your midst. I hope this week you can be part of a compassionate presence in your own workplace/dorm/classroom of the “harassed and helpless.”
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Willibrord
This week we commemorate Willibrord, the first Archbishop of Utrecht, missioner from England to The Netherlands in the late 8th and early 9th centuries. He was born in Northumbria, where Celtic influences were prominent. He studied in France and Ireland, then was sent with 9 companions to Frisia in 690. We know these details of his life from The Venerable Bede’s History of the Church in England, and having no other sources, are unable to say much more about his life and work, except that it was interrupted by wars in the regions he served.
The See of Utrecht today is in full communion with the Church of England, testifying to the importance of Willibrord’s bringing Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Christianity to this region of Europe.
The collect for Willibrord, from Lesser Feasts and Fasts:
O Lord our God, who call whom you will and send them where you choose: We thank you for sending your servant Willibrord to be an apostle to the Low Countries, to turn them from the worship of idols to serve you, the living God; and we entreat you to preserve us from the temptation to exchange the perfect freedom of your service for servitude to false gods and to idols of our own devising; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
The language of this collect seems quaint to us in its use of the phrase “worship of idols”, as we now understand idolatry to be as rampant among modern Christians as among any group of “pagans” of history. However, we do serve the living God, and try to keep mindful of God’s presence in our midst, providing guidance in confusion, grace in our moments of need, and mercy when we fall. We continue to pray that God would deliver us from our penchant of serving false gods in our lives. Maybe Willibrord will help us even now, interceding on our behalf.
Have a blessed week.
The See of Utrecht today is in full communion with the Church of England, testifying to the importance of Willibrord’s bringing Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Christianity to this region of Europe.
The collect for Willibrord, from Lesser Feasts and Fasts:
O Lord our God, who call whom you will and send them where you choose: We thank you for sending your servant Willibrord to be an apostle to the Low Countries, to turn them from the worship of idols to serve you, the living God; and we entreat you to preserve us from the temptation to exchange the perfect freedom of your service for servitude to false gods and to idols of our own devising; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
The language of this collect seems quaint to us in its use of the phrase “worship of idols”, as we now understand idolatry to be as rampant among modern Christians as among any group of “pagans” of history. However, we do serve the living God, and try to keep mindful of God’s presence in our midst, providing guidance in confusion, grace in our moments of need, and mercy when we fall. We continue to pray that God would deliver us from our penchant of serving false gods in our lives. Maybe Willibrord will help us even now, interceding on our behalf.
Have a blessed week.
Monday, October 1, 2007
For Ghandi's birthday, Quotes on peace from Ann Jay
In celebration of the October 2 birthday (1869) of Mahandas K. Ghandi, the great peace activist and statesman of India, who promoted civil disobedience and walked very softly, I offer these quotes concerning war and peace.
From Mahatma himself;
"Permanent good can never be the outcome of untruth and violence."
"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall."
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Peace activist, Indian statesman (1869-1948)
From Generals and Warriors;
Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. Omar N. Bradley : U.S. General (1893-1981)
~~
"I like to think that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
Dwight David Eisenhower : U.S. General and 34th president (1890-1969)
~~
"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."
Herman Goering: German Military and Nazi Leader, International war criminal (1893-1946)
~~
"It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation." "War is hell."
William Tecumseh Sherman: Union General in the American Civil War (1820-1891)
From Statesmen and world leaders;
"Youth is the first victim of war - the first fruit of peace. It takes 20 years or more of peace to make a man; it takes only 20 seconds of war to destroy him." Boudewijn I, King of Belgium (1934-1993)
~~
"In taking revenge a man is but even with his enemy, but in passing it over he is superior, for it is a prince's part to pardon."
Francis Bacon: essayist, philosopher, and statesman (1561-1626)
~~
"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little."
Edmund Burke: statesman and writer (1729-1797)
~~
"Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is made clean again."
Dag Hammarskjöld: 2nd UN Secretary General (1905-1961)
~~
"I am not one of those who believe that a great army is the means of maintaining peace, because if you build up a great profession those who form parts of it want to exercise their profession."
Woodrow Wilson: 28th US president, Nobel laureate (1856-1924)
From writers and other artists;
"A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against its government."
Edward Abbey: naturalist and author (1927-1989)
~~
"The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border."
Pablo Casals: Cellist, composer and Conductor (1876 – 1973)
~~
"We are all in the same boat, in a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty."
G.K. Chesterton: essayist and novelist (1874-1936)
~~
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace."
Jimi Hendrix: musician, singer and songwriter (1942-1970)
~~
"In war, there are no unwounded soldiers." Jose Narosky: writer
~~
"In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful."
Leo Tolstoy: novelist and philosopher (1828-1910)
~~
"Did you know that the worldwide food shortage that threatens up to five hundred million children could be alleviated at the cost of only one day, only ONE day, of modern warfare."
Peter Ustinov: actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
~~
"There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but
there must never be a time when we fail to protest."
Elie Wiesel: Novelist, philosopher, humanitarian, political activist and Holocaust survivor.(1928-)
From a child;
"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."
Anne Frank: child diarist and concentration camp victim (1929 – 1945)
From the wise whose names have been lost in time;
"When two elephants fight it is the grass that gets trampled." African proverb
~~
"Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it." Anonymous
~~
"The man who strikes first admits that his ideas have given out.
Chinese Proverb
~~
"A great war leaves the country with three armies - an army of cripples,
an army of mourners, and an army of thieves." German proverb
~~
"Without retaliation evils would one day become extinct from the world."
Ibo saying
~~
From those who have studied Society;
"The man who prefers his country before any other duty shows the same spirit as the man who surrenders every right to the state. They both deny that right is superior to authority."
Lord Acton: historian (1834-1902)
~~
"The day will come when, after harnessing space, the winds, the tides and gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, we shall have discovered fire." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: Jesuit Priest, paleontologist and philosopher(1881-1955)
~~
"No society that feeds its children on tales of successful violence can
expect them not to believe that violence in the end is rewarded."
Margaret Mead: anthropologist (1901-1978)
~~
And from religious leaders;
All forms of violence, especially war, are totally unacceptable as means to settle disputes between and among nations, groups and persons. "
"Nonviolence does not mean that we remain indifferent to a problem. On the contrary, it is important to be fully engaged. However, we must behave in a way that does not benefit us alone. We must not harm the interests of others. Nonviolence therefore is not merely the absence of violence. It involves a sense of compassion and caring. It is almost a manifestation of compassion."
"Internal peace is an essential first step to achieving peace in the world. How do you cultivate it? It's very simple. In the first place by realizing clearly that all mankind is one, that human beings in every country are members of one and the same family."
"If we looked down at the world from space, we would not see any demarcations of national boundaries. We would simply see one small planet, just one."
Dalai Lama, Spiritual Leader and author (1935- )
~~
"If we have no peace it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other."
Mother Theresa (born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu): Missionary, Nobel Peace Laureate, beatified by Roman Catholic Church (1910-1997)
~~
May these words and thoughts help spread the peace and harmony we so desperately need in this world.
Peace and Love,
Ann Jay
From Mahatma himself;
"Permanent good can never be the outcome of untruth and violence."
"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall."
Mohandas K. Gandhi, Peace activist, Indian statesman (1869-1948)
From Generals and Warriors;
Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. Omar N. Bradley : U.S. General (1893-1981)
~~
"I like to think that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
Dwight David Eisenhower : U.S. General and 34th president (1890-1969)
~~
"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."
Herman Goering: German Military and Nazi Leader, International war criminal (1893-1946)
~~
"It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation." "War is hell."
William Tecumseh Sherman: Union General in the American Civil War (1820-1891)
From Statesmen and world leaders;
"Youth is the first victim of war - the first fruit of peace. It takes 20 years or more of peace to make a man; it takes only 20 seconds of war to destroy him." Boudewijn I, King of Belgium (1934-1993)
~~
"In taking revenge a man is but even with his enemy, but in passing it over he is superior, for it is a prince's part to pardon."
Francis Bacon: essayist, philosopher, and statesman (1561-1626)
~~
"Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little."
Edmund Burke: statesman and writer (1729-1797)
~~
"Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is made clean again."
Dag Hammarskjöld: 2nd UN Secretary General (1905-1961)
~~
"I am not one of those who believe that a great army is the means of maintaining peace, because if you build up a great profession those who form parts of it want to exercise their profession."
Woodrow Wilson: 28th US president, Nobel laureate (1856-1924)
From writers and other artists;
"A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against its government."
Edward Abbey: naturalist and author (1927-1989)
~~
"The love of one's country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border."
Pablo Casals: Cellist, composer and Conductor (1876 – 1973)
~~
"We are all in the same boat, in a stormy sea, and we owe each other a terrible loyalty."
G.K. Chesterton: essayist and novelist (1874-1936)
~~
"When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace."
Jimi Hendrix: musician, singer and songwriter (1942-1970)
~~
"In war, there are no unwounded soldiers." Jose Narosky: writer
~~
"In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful."
Leo Tolstoy: novelist and philosopher (1828-1910)
~~
"Did you know that the worldwide food shortage that threatens up to five hundred million children could be alleviated at the cost of only one day, only ONE day, of modern warfare."
Peter Ustinov: actor, writer and director (1921-2004)
~~
"There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but
there must never be a time when we fail to protest."
Elie Wiesel: Novelist, philosopher, humanitarian, political activist and Holocaust survivor.(1928-)
From a child;
"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."
Anne Frank: child diarist and concentration camp victim (1929 – 1945)
From the wise whose names have been lost in time;
"When two elephants fight it is the grass that gets trampled." African proverb
~~
"Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it." Anonymous
~~
"The man who strikes first admits that his ideas have given out.
Chinese Proverb
~~
"A great war leaves the country with three armies - an army of cripples,
an army of mourners, and an army of thieves." German proverb
~~
"Without retaliation evils would one day become extinct from the world."
Ibo saying
~~
From those who have studied Society;
"The man who prefers his country before any other duty shows the same spirit as the man who surrenders every right to the state. They both deny that right is superior to authority."
Lord Acton: historian (1834-1902)
~~
"The day will come when, after harnessing space, the winds, the tides and gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, we shall have discovered fire." Pierre Teilhard de Chardin: Jesuit Priest, paleontologist and philosopher(1881-1955)
~~
"No society that feeds its children on tales of successful violence can
expect them not to believe that violence in the end is rewarded."
Margaret Mead: anthropologist (1901-1978)
~~
And from religious leaders;
All forms of violence, especially war, are totally unacceptable as means to settle disputes between and among nations, groups and persons. "
"Nonviolence does not mean that we remain indifferent to a problem. On the contrary, it is important to be fully engaged. However, we must behave in a way that does not benefit us alone. We must not harm the interests of others. Nonviolence therefore is not merely the absence of violence. It involves a sense of compassion and caring. It is almost a manifestation of compassion."
"Internal peace is an essential first step to achieving peace in the world. How do you cultivate it? It's very simple. In the first place by realizing clearly that all mankind is one, that human beings in every country are members of one and the same family."
"If we looked down at the world from space, we would not see any demarcations of national boundaries. We would simply see one small planet, just one."
Dalai Lama, Spiritual Leader and author (1935- )
~~
"If we have no peace it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other."
Mother Theresa (born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu): Missionary, Nobel Peace Laureate, beatified by Roman Catholic Church (1910-1997)
~~
May these words and thoughts help spread the peace and harmony we so desperately need in this world.
Peace and Love,
Ann Jay
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