Showing posts with label prison ministry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prison ministry. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

The Journey to Jerusalem ...

Lent has been a L...O...N...G journey this year.  I've been offering a weekly Labyrinth Walk through Lent at Mission Bend United Methodist Church in Houston.   It was a Lenten Spiritual Discipline for me.  The Labyrinth was open from 1:00 pm to 8:00 pm ...

On Holy Tuesday I created an interactive prayer walking experience which featured the Labyrinth. Hear this prayer ... Jesus, come join us in our journey as we seek your will for this community in this environment. Teach us to love each other as you love us, to give ourselves as you give yourself that the kingdom of God might be made present to all. Amen.  I created in the spirit of this prayer which I learned as an active member of the Kairos Prison Ministry International community.

I hoped that people would find this sense of taking the journey with Jesus as they walked.  In this case we walk with Jesus on the path leading to the cross.  Although there is no way to get a real sense of the physical journey we took, I share it with you here ... 

A JOURNEY OF PRAYER AND REFLECTION
 
Following Jesus’ triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, he continued to teach, preach, and heal.  The disciples prepared the Passover meal, as they were directed.  Before that … Jesus sat and contemplated the city of Jerusalem.   The city would soon be destroyed.  Jesus was grieving because Jerusalem had not responded to his declaration of the kingdom and God’s work of salvation in the city.  For this reason, Jesus begins holy week in pain and grief as he prays and laments. 



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Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Poetry by Rilke

I just got back from a Kairos Prison Ministry Inside at the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women. I am full of emotions and yet devoid of feeling.  It was very powerful but overwhelming at the same time.  I am suffering from the lack of process time I have left myself.  My friend Jeanna prayed and anointed me at our Service of Wholeness tonight and I cried for the women who have touched my heart.

As I remember this poem by Rilke I find myself gripped in its melancholic sense of trust as I struggle to surrender long enough to taste the consolation of God ...and remember the women who have touched my heart.      Lord have mercy ... Christ have mercy ...
A Poem by Rainer Maria Rilke, trans. by Br. David Steindl-Rast
Every now and then we let ourselves imagine 
the worst that could happen to us: 
How could we survive?  
This testimony of dedication and trust 
attests to an enduring relationship 
that goes beyond our vision, 
our hearing, 
our speech, 
our mobility, 
and even our ability to think...
a relationship which cannot be extinguished. 
In the sureness of this relationship – 
and our ability to surrender to it – 
lies consolation beyond measure.