Beloved Friends.

In my monthly planner I have a new set of numbers. Starting on Monday March16, I wrote the number “1” and each day after have continued marking yet another day of making our way through this new landscape amid the COVID-19 global pandemic.

By this Sunday we will be on “Day 14” (understanding this reality started long before March 16). This Sunday will also be our final Sunday of this season we call Lent.

And while we are near the end of one journey, we are still at the beginning of other journeys. Two parallel journeys come to mind-the journey we are only just beginning I fear, still trying to navigate how to live separately but still connected, and the journey we will make as a church moving towards Palm Sunday, Holy Week and the Feast of the Resurrection on Easter Sunday.

So as some journeys are ending and others continue, I find myself needing a blessing for the travels that have been and are still yet to be. We have traversed the landscape of our souls over these past few weeks together and for that I am grateful. This pandemic has offered us new ways of connecting and building community; new ways to gather; new ways to pray and worship together.

We have been reminded that this annual Lenten pilgrimage to and through the foot of the cross is both complicated and compelling. Thank you for the many ways you are showing up for this journey; it is not a trip always easy to take, but never is there a regret at the journey’s end.

This Sunday we will gather again virtually and hear the story of the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. What a timely reminder for the journey we are about to embark on together. Come and hear that story again and be drawn further into the journey we travel towards Holy Week and Easter. As I said in my sermon last Sunday, Easter is coming and the resurrection cannot be contained by any pandemic!

Blessing for Travelers 

When you travel, a new silence goes with you,
and if you listen, you will hear
what your heart would love to say.
A journey can become a sacred thing.

Make sure, before you go, to take the time
to bless your going forth,
to free your heart of ballast
so that the compass of your soul
might direct you toward the territories of spirit
where you will discover more of your hidden life,
and the urgencies that deserve to claim you.

May you travel in an awakened way,
gathered wisely into your inner ground;
that you may not waste the invitations
which wait along the way to transform you.
-John O’Donohue, To Bless the Space Between Us

May we listen for what our hearts would love to say; I am ready, are you?

May you never forget that you are loved.
Lisa

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