Advent One: A Five State Tour

I’m on my way to Oregon for Jonas’ #13 by way of Washington, DC. I’ve gotten almost as many great comments about this itinerary as I did for my lark to Seattle last month for Patti Smith’s 50th anniversary tour of her first album, Horses. Ah. Retirement adventures!

Two of my dearest cousins live in Virginia and have some serious health issues. Both decorated veterans, their declining health is very likely exposure to Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam.

I’d wanted to visit them for some time but one thing and another had interfered. When detouring to Oregon via DC turned out to be easy money wise, I thought why not? They’d been on my heart during my prayer time so it felt like a holy nudge.

Thursday I flew to DC and then did a ride share on Friday to their home in Virginia. The area had an unexpected early snow which made the world full of wonder for this Texas girl. Snow infrastructure in place, roads were clear.

I spent the morning with one cousin while my other cousin went to one of her frequent doctor’s appointments. He and I had great conversation and did some processing of the many challenges in their lives. Tears were frequent.

I made us a stew for lunch from food provided by their weekly helper. The conversation around the table was even more warm and delicious than the comforting bowls of stew on a snowy day.

Right as we finished lunch, another friend stopped by with cardamon cookies. She is helping them with their upcoming move into assisted living and their end of life decisions. More deep conversation followed.

After a final conversation with my cousin as she rested from the full day, we ended with healing prayers. And more tears.

As I rode back to the hotel surrounded by snow covered trees, I was grateful for over forty years of sitting with people in life-changing circumstances. In this retirement season, using those experiences and learnings with those I love was a gift from God.

Not to say—Snow!!!!

Retreat Season: A Gathering of Grace

Twenty four years ago, Sister Mary Luke sat in the chapel of Our Lady of Grace Monastery with a thick brown envelope in her lap. As she held the envelope that she would mail the next morning to the Eli Lilly Foundation, she offered all that was inside to God. She asked that if the grant she was requesting was of God, that God would bless it and open the doors to this possibility for women clergy. The offering was to be called Women Touched by Grace.

God and Lilly said yes.

I was part of the extraordinary gift of being in the first Women Touched by Grace group. I continued to participate in Women Touched by Grace through leading sessions with three other groups and being part of a leadership team that wrote grants to secure continued funding for this vital ministry. All were granted through Lilly initiatives to help clergy thrive in ministry.

Women Touched by Grace is in a new season. We have been invited to take what is best from our experience and share it with women clergy in our own context.

Twenty three years later, twenty two or so women clergy, representing the over 100 women clergy from five Women Touched by Grace groups, gathered in the chapel of Fatima Retreat Center and offered twenty or so plans to God. We prayed that God that would take the gift of community and formation, rooted in Benedictine values, back into our home contexts to create Gatherings of Grace. In this next expression, I imagine another 2000 or so women clergy will be served.

In the early days of Women Touched by Grace, Sister Mary Luke was interviewed by The Christian Century. She said that she had been surprised by how lonely and unsupported women clergy felt. The group we are beginning in Houston with my Gathering of Grace grant was born out of a conversation I had with two newly ordained priests last January who shared how lonely and isolated they felt. Our little Gathering of Grace will meet every six weeks or so in my home. We eight pastors range from newly ordained to established in ministry to near retirement to (me) retired—ages 20’s to 70’s.

I was struck that in this time of chaos and too much unkindness and hate that most of these Gatherings of Grace will be in deep red states, with about a third of them in Texas. Others will be in west coast cities inhabited by the National Guard. For me, it feels like a movement of the Holy Spirit.

My four days at Our Lady of Fatima were rich with worship and conversation with excellent women. My wake up song each morning was:

The kingdom of God is justice and peace And joy in the Holy Spirit

Come, Lord and open in us the gates of your kingdom.

Filled with the Spirit, I am ready to gather in Grace. Wherever the Spirit gathers.

A week at the Monastery

*The welcome on my desk from Sr. Mary Luke*

I’ve been traveling to Beech Grove, Indiana, to the Monastery of our Lady of Grace for over twenty years. First, as a part of a Lilly renewal ministry for women clergy called Women Touched by Grace, and then as a Benedictine Oblate of the Monastery.

I’m here on retreat with intentional prayer and discernment for what my response is to be in the chaotic, cruel times we find ourselves in.

I’m guided by questions of discernment offered by the Rev. Nadia Bolz-Weber:

What’s mine to do? What’s not mine to do?

What’s mine to say? What’s not mine to say?

What’s mine to care about? What’s not mine to care about (meaning the work of others to do)?

I’ve taken walks in the Peace Garden, a community project of reclaiming part of the monastery property with native plants and as a natural habitat.

I’ve prayed with the Sisters in the morning, at noon, and in the evening.

I’ve painted prayers.

I’ve knitted.

I’ve had times of silence.

I’ve had time of listening to the wisdom of the Sisters.

I’ve read.

I had an unexpected evening with women who share devotion to St. Mary in fellowship, praying the rosary, and more listening.

I’m still listening, God.

A six state tour

Texas. Georgia. Indiana. Illinois. Pennsylvania. Delaware.

My very best friend and I are continuing our year of larks. By our definition, a lark is a trip of less than a week; often a weekend long; often planned at the last minute or on a whim.

This lark started as a weekend in Ft. Wayne, Indiana to attend an Indigo Girls/Melissa Ethridge concert and then expanded to travel to Brandywine, Pennsylvania to see an art exhibit we’d heard about on the PBS Newshour.

I flew from Houston to Atlanta to meet up with my very best friend. After a long layover and a delayed flight, we were in Ft. Wayne.

The delayed flight resulted in a wait at the Ft. Wayne airport for our shuttle to our hotel. I decided to seek beauty around me, this time outside the terminal in a construction site. It’s a spiritual practice I’ve been nurturing when I might become anxious or irritable.

Saturday was a free day to explore sights within walking distance of our hotel.

Coffee, of course, to start the day.

Next was the Botanical Garden for a view of “something blue.” That was the title of the current exhibit though it turned out to be more things green and purple and pink with a sort of scavenger hunt for the blue. A very nice search indeed. Especially from our sitting space in our blue chairs.

Our next walk was for a delicious lunch. The walk back to our hotel took us on an unexpected tour of a small portion of the Fort Wayne Public Art Trail.

After this walk, summer hot, it was time for yet another coffee.

The lovely day in Ft. Wayne (who knew?) ended with one short walk to the Embassy Theater for a night of spectacular music and the joy of singing and dancing along with the Melissa, Amy, and Emily.

Grateful. So grateful.