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.

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)
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"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
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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

Mission trip

I am in conversation with MSU Wesley Foundation minister and others for a spring break trip to Chicago.

Would you be interested? If we can gather enough students, it will go a long way towards making our planning more real. Reply to this blog or find me on Facebook and let me know if you would be a candidate for this trip!!

God's embrace

The Avowal
by Denise Levertov

As swimmers dare
To lie face to the sky
And water bears them,
As hawks rest upon air
And air sustains them,
So would I learn to attain
Free fall and float
Into Creator Spirit's deep embrace,
Knowing no effort earns
The all-surrounding grace.

Patience and all that

I am in a new career, a vocation that calls upon me to let go of the markers of success I was used to gauging myself on. Like the numbers of people who showed up to my classes when I taught, the amount of money (in grants) that I brought in, the number of scholarly articles and books I published.

That measuring stick is now obsolete, but it is truly hard to discard. When I celebrate the Eucharist and look out into the small rural congregation I am serving, I have to use another measure of effectiveness, if indeed "effectiveness" is what my priesthood is all about.

What does it mean to be an effective priest?

I used to teach evaluation to health managers, so effectiveness was very important in measuring the success of patient and health professional outcomes. It usually had something to do with health and access to care, not just any care, but good care, in a timely manner. The right professional for the patient, in terms of cultural accessibility; The right cost to patient and insurance; The right diagnosis, the right treatment administered correctly and in the apppropriate amounts, with the right follow up care. Not only that, but much of my professional life was spent evaluating long-term care for elderly patients and residents of home and nursing home. In those cases, effectiveness may be measured by persons' being able to stay at home for the longest, safest period, being independent in functioning in daily living activities, while having good social supports. The outcomes of long-term care were lots more amorphous than measuring the outcomes of heart surgery.

So, where does this knowledge lead me now, in knowing how I am doing in my new priestly role?

First, head counting won't work in celebrating the Eucharist or being with students. The numbers who show up for any given program say something about its appeal, yes, but what does that mean spiritually? I cannot know really. I need to reflect more on this.

Second, how does one measure another person's spiritual growth from an encounter with them? There are good markers of pastoral work and spiritual direction, based on the professions underlying them. There are boundaries and correct methods of confronting people's defenses to help them engage their issues, both with God, others and themselves and ultimately, with the person who God has made them to be. But even good process does not ensure good spiritual outcomes. Is it all really in God's hands, with our without a priestly presence and guidance??

Third, there are no "outcomes" in spiritual work, in the sense of measurable moments when we can say our work is finished. Spiritual work does not even end with death, but in some ways, is just beginning as we grow in relation to God into eternity. But, surely, that does not mean we give up on looking for spiritual growth around us, in our encounters, does it?

What an effective priest does is a process not primarily an outcome, for me. A process of pastoral presence. Not just sitting in the student center, reading, but making eye contact and saying hello to passers-by, in a way that allows for love to be transmitted to strangers, gently, not accusingly or aggressively. Pastoral work involves the process of listening for the hurt, anger, and distress, as well as the moments of light and love, in a person's life--active listening, it's called. The process is that unconditional love be transmitted to the person. The priest is real, not faking a pious concern. The priest uses psychic energy to stay tuned to the other person, setting aside his/her own agenda for the moments with the other.

Being a priest is sitting with God and simultaneously interpreting God's presence, through other people, as well as through scripture and sacraments. Being a priest is giving up any agenda of control over who shows up, or how God chooses to enter into relationships, or whether God chooses to use the priest at all in relationships. (That's humbling...)

There is much to ponder about priestly effectiveness, and I have only touched the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Family systems in congregations has much to say on the subject, for instance. Stay tuned for more, as I reflect on my first year as a priest over the next few months.