Driving, traveling, shopping and cooking all preceed the gatherings anticipated for this coming Thursday. Family members may be in Los Angles or around the corner. Wherever they are people remark to me that is not so important how long it takes to get there or what is on the menu. What is important is that the family is together.
The Thanksgiving celebration may extend over more than one day. For example, two Thanksgiving on two different days so that the married adult children can make the rounds of both sets of parents. Or, one celebration with family and another with friends. We want to be with those we love.
Our desire to be with those we love and who love us is at the heart of Thanksgiving. I invite you each day this week in prayer to offer thanks for those who love you. Reflect on the people who let you know that you are important, cherished. Reflect on the people who love you in several different dimensions of love: friendship, companionship, beloved, child, parent, soul mate, sibling. Recall that you did not ask for this love but that is flows to you naturally and freely. Experience this love as a way to connecting to God's love for us, a love that we do not ask for but one that flows to us naturally and freely.
May our thankfullness and our Thanksgiving Celebrations be overflowing.
Reflecting on the every day, practical dimensions of faith. Practices to shape our lives each day as followers of Christ. Stories to share our practical experiences of wisdom, faith, hope, and love.
Monday, November 22, 2010
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Father Carol
There is a bubbling conversation in the Diocese of Maryland. Unless otherwise requested by the clergyperson, the bishop will call men priests Father and women priests Mother. Since I am not called to be the head of a monastic order of women, since I am not called to be celibate but instead called to be and have lived for the last 24 years as married woman, I have asked the bishop not to call me Mother. I consider the call to monastic life and the call to celebacy as particular vocations within the church and for certain individuals. Mother expresses this monastic and celibate call.
I am called to preach, teach, and celebrate the sacraments in the life of a congregation and on behalf of the church. I am called to be a steward of property and administration, a care taker of souls, an guide for the spiritual lives of people of St John's, and light by which these same people celebrate the ministries to which they have been called. Traditionally, the church has called members of the church called to the minstry to which I am called, Father. And, in the last thirty years it has been recognized that God calls both men and women to this particular life in the church.
Now, consider King Peggy. Morning Edition on NPR shared her story on November 11, 2010. Briefly, she was named as King of her village in Ghana after the King, her uncle, died. The village never had a woman king before nor did Peggy every anticipate being King. But, she has accepted her new 'destiny' and now works to make the lives of her people better.
So, King Peggy's story leads me to ask, why not Father Carol? Is it necessary to divide women and men clergy by name since the function of a parish priest has always been called Father? Why is the gender distinction needed when those names, Father and Mother, speak to very different ministries?
I am trying Father Carol 'on' in this post but also on my new Twitter page. We'll see how it unfolds.
I am called to preach, teach, and celebrate the sacraments in the life of a congregation and on behalf of the church. I am called to be a steward of property and administration, a care taker of souls, an guide for the spiritual lives of people of St John's, and light by which these same people celebrate the ministries to which they have been called. Traditionally, the church has called members of the church called to the minstry to which I am called, Father. And, in the last thirty years it has been recognized that God calls both men and women to this particular life in the church.
Now, consider King Peggy. Morning Edition on NPR shared her story on November 11, 2010. Briefly, she was named as King of her village in Ghana after the King, her uncle, died. The village never had a woman king before nor did Peggy every anticipate being King. But, she has accepted her new 'destiny' and now works to make the lives of her people better.
So, King Peggy's story leads me to ask, why not Father Carol? Is it necessary to divide women and men clergy by name since the function of a parish priest has always been called Father? Why is the gender distinction needed when those names, Father and Mother, speak to very different ministries?
I am trying Father Carol 'on' in this post but also on my new Twitter page. We'll see how it unfolds.
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