The Seine Net Reflections for the 1st Sunday in Lent. We explore the Lectionary Readings for this Sunday and reflect on other bits and pieces of interesting information the net has brought to our attention.
Just as a seine net pulls up all sorts of things, some unexpected, so I think of this reflection post, as it grabs bits of information off the net.
If you would like to see a page with the previous reflections you can follow this link.
The Lectionary Readings for today
Scripture Lessons for this Week: the 1st Sunday in Lent:
Genesis 9:8-17; Psalm 25:1-10; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Mark 9:9-15
Reflections on the Scripture
Rather than just focusing upon the temptations (or seeing them first), what about starting with Jesus’ time in prayer. For the temptations happened after the 40 days of prayer.
Where Do We Expect Theophanies to Occur (revisited)?
We again have an expected Theophany this week.
Well that probably depends upon your culture. Theophanies are those places where God shows up. It is interesting that for the Biblical writers, that would mean the desert, the mountain tops, and in clouds.
We cultural citizens of the United States get similar clues that something is going to happen in a certain way. When we see an old town at high noon and a man with a ten-gallon hat steps off the boardwalk and adjusts his pistol belt, what’s going to happen? Probably not a theophany. (On second thought, maybe your life flashing before your eyes is one).
Back to the text for this week. The reader, listener, know that a theophany is going to happen. Jesus goes out into the desert.
What I find interesting is the following. Do you notice where theophanies are expected? In wild places. When we eliminate wild places (both internally and externally) what does that imply?
The 40 Days of Lent
The number 40 (40 days and 40 nights …) is quite common biblically. And Jesus’ going out into the wilderness for 40 days is directly tied into the Lentan season. We have 40 days of Lent (not counting Sundays, which are always little Easters).
The Start of Jesus’ Public Ministry is Spent in Prayer and Reflection
It is interesting to note that Jesus spends time away to pray, to ground himself, before entering public ministry. And even during public ministry, Jesus spends some time away for prayer.
As I noted on Ash Wednesday there is a difference between Kairos and Chronos time. Do Empires request Chronos related time? Is spending time in prayer a form of resistance?
On a different note: how would our lives be lived if we first spent time in long term prayer before engaging into public forms of service? What would it look like, for instance, if before taking public office, elected officials had to spend time in solitude prayer?
Prayer, Solitude and a Pandemic Reflection
This past year, for many of us, has been lived in a different way. Many of us have been working from home (those that can) or going to work and returning quickly back (for those of us essential workers). Does Jesus’ time alone, separate and in prayer speak to us differently after a year of living with the pandemic and various lockdowns? How might living with Jesus help us to see these experiences differently?
A Reflection on the Medieval Peasants
“Those Who Work” (by Judith M. Bennett) is an examination of how scholars (many historians) are trying to piece together the daily lives of the folks toward the bottom. I found it interesting to see how they are using legal type documents to do this work. In light of the essential workers in our own day, what might future generations uncover about our daily lives?
Beyond Just Cave Art – a Reflection
“What the Caves Are Trying to Tell Us” is a look at not just the cave art of early humans, but the little patterns of dots and squiggles and forms that appear with them. What are they trying to say? Is it a form of language?
And Speaking of Old Languages
Sevindj Nurkiyazova explores “The English Word That Hasn’t Changed in Sound or Meaning in 8,000 Years.” This fish has been around the human world a very long time. Personal confession, however, I had to move to the Eastern USA before really being exposed to it. I wonder how old Salmon is and where it derives? Ah, that sounds like a different rabbit hole to descend. Or, sense we are talking salmon, maybe I should say “a different river to ascend”?
Reflections for Black History Month
This is a continuation of a theme from last week’s Seine Net Reflection. These are the topics that Rachel Cargle is encouraging us to read this week. As I said last week …
Black History is United States History, Rachel Cargle reminds us. She has been posting to her Instagram feed places for the rest of us to go and learn (even unlearn) things about the United States history.
For most of us, the research is right at our fingertips via a computer, tablet, or smart phone. Here is the list of things to look up for this week:
NAACP,
Florynce Kennedy,
Gordon Parks,
Kathrine Dunham,
Anna Julia Cooper,
Betty Davis,
Matthew Alexander Henson.
(This is the third week. You can follow along with the #DiscoverOurGlory2021.)
Give her a follow and learn along with us: Rachel Elizabeth Cargle
A Spiritual Practice
As this Seine Net seems to be full of labor, perhaps looking at Benedictine Spiritual Practice might be in order. You might not have caught the pun as the Spiritual Practices are from the Order of St. Benedict. Anyway, …
“Ora et Labora” – Prayer and Labor
St. Benedict was asked to put together some guidelines for others who were seeking to be transformed by a way of life. In essence, they were asking for his wisdom. Benedict comes out of the line of desert ammas and abbas (mothers and fathers) who sought to transform themselves by following Christ in living simply, praying, and doing enough work to support themselves. It appears that basket weaving, rope making, and rug making (often with palm, or related plants) was the main industry.
Benedict wrote is Rule drawing upon this tradition (with his own flavors, of course). I often wonder if Benedict had any idea that he would be shaping the monastic movement in the West for 1,500 years. Prayer and Work offers a spiritual balance to daily life.
I first became aware of this Benedictine way while serving three United Methodist Churches in North Central Idaho. There was a Benedictine Monastery nearby, and I became friends with many of the sisters there.
[I’ve updated this by changing out the following, as Fr. Richard Rohr quotes Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB in his daily meditation February 23, 2021]
Sr. Chittister writes:
All in all, the Rule of Benedict is designed for ordinary people who live ordinary lives. It was not written for priests or mystics or hermits or ascetics; it was written by a layman for laymen. It was written to provide a model of spiritual development for the average person who intends to live life beyond the superficial or the uncaring. …
Benedict was quite precise about it all. Time was to be spent in prayer, in sacred reading, in work, and in community participation. In other words, it was to be spent on listening to the Word, on study, on making life better for others, and on community building. It was a public as well as private; it was private as well as public. It was balanced. No one thing got exaggerated out of all proportion to the other dimensions of life. No one thing absorbed the human spirit to the exclusion of every other. Life was made up of many facets and only together did they form a whole. Physical labor and mental prayer and social life and study and community concerns were all pieces of the puzzle of life. Life flowed through time, with time as its guardian. (Joan D. Chittister, Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today (HarperSanFrancisco: 1991), 4, 74-75.)
How does your own life flow? If you created a rule, what would it say? What would you stress?
Blessed be
Currently I’ve still been reading Philip Jenkins’. The Lost History of Christianity, the Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia – and How It Died.
_____/)__________(\__________/)_____
Most of the links in this post are to other pages.
The links in this post are affiliate links through Bookshop.org for your convenience. If you were to purchase something by following the links, we would get a small commission at no extra expense to you, while you get to support a local bookstore. Thank you for the support. If you’d like to see other books I’ve recommended, click here.
If you feel you must shop through Amazon, here is our affiliate links. Again, thank you for sending us a little something at no extra expense to you.
Joan D. Chittister, Wisdom Distilled from the Daily: Living the Rule of St. Benedict Today (HarperSanFrancisco: 1991