Wednesday, February 24, 2010 at 1:07 am

On Lent and Hard Times: For Those Who Walk Among Noise

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Where shall the word be found, where will the word

Resound? Not here, there is not enough silence

Not on the sea or on the islands, not

On the mainland, in the desert or the rain land,

For those who walk in darkness

Both in the day time and in the night time

The right time and the right place are not here

No place of grace for those who avoid the face

No time to rejoice for those who walk among noise and deny the voice.

After service at our parish, a friend and I read T.S. Elliot’s Ash Wednesday. Though the entire poem is worth much time and thought, this particular stanza leapt at me. For those who walk among noise. Well, that’s me. That’s us.

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Wednesday, February 24, 2010 at 9:46 pm

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Tuesday, February 16, 2010 at 6:09 pm

On Lent and Hard Times: Seasonal Creatures

Posted by Cate MacDonald | Comments (0) |

 There is a trick employed by many a horse owner that helps them keep their show horses looking sleek and shiny year round. When the days begin to shorten as winter approaches, horses will naturally grow longer, thicker, and courser coats to protect them from the coming cold. But leave the lights on in the barn just a few hours longer everyday, maintaining the long days of summer despite the weather outside, and a horse will keep his shiny summer coat, making it another’s responsibility to blanket him now that his body can no longer recognize the season. The same can be done to a chicken to keep her laying year round, if you don’t mind shortening her life and weakening her product.

I learned this early on in my many years as an equestrian and have thought about it quite a bit since. I was a plague to my college roommates, insisting on dim lighting after sundown, convinced that so much artificial light could not be good for us if it was such a powerful force in nature. Now, I have no idea if that particular extrapolation is true, but of one thing I am convinced: we are all meant to live in seasons.

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Monday, February 8, 2010 at 11:27 pm

On Lent and Hard Times: Part 1

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February 17^th is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the season of Lent. Around this time last year I wrote a reflection on fasting as it is portrayed in Isaiah, wondering at the nature of a true fast. I think it’s sort of funny that I end up writing about this stuff, because fasting (like most spiritual disciplines) has never, until very recently, been a big part of my life, and I am not very good at it. I’ve not grown up in churches that observed the church year, nor do I attend one now, so my reflections on the ancient practices such as Lent are usually entirely my own, for better or for worse, written as a newcomer. I say this as a sort of caveat since, in the coming weeks, I will be posting four or five personal and observed reasons why Lent’s extended period of fasting and willing deprivation is good for you, Oh Evangelical Protestant (and of course by you, I mean me and hopefully you).

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Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 8:21 pm

On the Soul

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Does it ever give thee pause, that men used to have a soul - not by hearsay alone, or as a figure of speech; but as a truth that they knew and acted upon. Verily it was another world then... but yet it is a pity we have lost the tidings of our souls... we shall have to go in search of them again, or worse in all ways shall befall us. ~ Thomas Carlyle 

How might you live differently if you were well aware of the tidings of your soul?

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Wednesday, January 20, 2010 at 12:29 pm

New Year, New You, If Only

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New Year's day has come and gone and with it a culture wide battery of resolutions. This is the year we will all be thinner, watch less TV, learn a new skill, read that one book everyone is talking about, go on more dates, give up on dating, cook for ourselves, or spend less.

If you're anything like me, the hope of the new you that seemed so promising on January 1st is already looking a lot like the you that celebrated December 31st. If only actual growth was as easy as resolving to change.

I was wavering with the direction I would take this post, wondering if I should encourage contentment and self-acceptance or remind you to hope and work towards what you want your life, heart, and mind to be. I was undecided until I finished a Harry Potter book this weekend. An unusual source of inspiration for me, I was struck by the wisdom that crept from a mostly silly story. There is a moment at the end of the second book where Harry is worried that he was meant for evil, that his talents and tendencies will betray him and he will sink into the power of the Dark Side (or whatever they call it. I get my modern mythologies confused). Anyways, wise Professor Dumbledore tells him that it is not his talents but his choices that determine what he will be and what impact he will have on his world.

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Monday, December 7, 2009 at 12:21 am

Backyard Character Redeux

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I posted the following a few months ago on a theology and culture blog I write for:

Backyards are private affairs in suburban Southern California. With high fences, cement walls and locked gates, they belong exclusively to the inhabitants of the house. I was thinking about this while watering my tomatoes and as I surveyed my surroundings I began to view the condition of my backyard as a test of my character. Mine was a disaster.

I read a morning devotional once about the significance of cleanliness to the life of the soul. The author (Elizabeth Elliot, I believe it was) told a story about a former head mistress she had at boarding school. She was known for randomly checking the rooms for made beds and folded clothes, telling the girls she “would have no pious talk coming from messy rooms.” They had a hall in the old boarding house containing a series of small oriental rugs. It was known as Character Hall because an individual’s character was tested each time she accidentally disturbed one of the rugs. Would she turn back and straighten it, or would she leave it for someone else to correct? The seemingly insignificant and everyday tasks of maintaining one’s home were viewed as a window to the state of the soul.

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Monday, November 30, 2009 at 1:19 am

Simple Lessons and Character Formation

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Every Sunday I teach a group of three year olds about Jesus. At least I try. It can take months for them to internalize and remember even the most simple of lessons. Last time this year I spent a month and a half simply trying to get them to remember Mary’s name. I got nowhere. Come December 26^th they neither knew nor cared who Jesus’ mother was. A few months before that we spent a whole day learning about Balaam’s donkey. We acted out the story, we read it from the Bible, we drew pictures, and we acted it out again. During snack I asked what kind of animal Balaam was riding when the angel stopped him. After a period of silence and confused glances, one bright young scholar suggested that he was riding a kangaroo. When I objected to this idea (to their great surprise), another proudly and definitively answered that he was atop a jaguar at the fateful meeting. Thus ended our lesson. I am not making this up.

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Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at 9:49 am

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Sunday, November 8, 2009 at 8:47 pm

A Fair Warning?

Posted by Cate MacDonald | Comments (2) |

Kyle’s (somewhat) recent posts regarding Reformed spiritual formation reminded me of a critique I read recently of Evangelical spiritual formation in general. The author argued that Evangelicals used spiritual disciplines in a way that was overly personal, especially compared to the other Christian traditions such as Orthodoxy or Roman Catholicism from whence they came. Since spiritual formation is a sort of niche in the Protestant church right now, spiritual disciplines are often retrieved out of books hot off the press, or from Rob Bell videos with little outside supervision or understanding. The priest writing the critique thought we had taken spiritual disciplines that were born and nurtured in church hierarchy and liturgy out of their protective context and unwisely tossed them on whomever happened to be walking by. Upon consideration, this seems to not only be a fair warning, but also an accurate observation of the Evangelical prerogative of getting laypeople the tools they need to know and love God intimately and personally.   

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Monday, November 9, 2009 at 12:00 pm

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