Food for Your Soul Friday - Habits of Grace from Presiding Bishop Curry
Each Friday on The Red Door we share something to nourish your soul, especially in these challenging times. Today, we invite you to listen to this short reflection from our Presiding Bishop Michael Curry in his weekly series Habits of Grace. Find past reflections and new reflections each Monday in May at this webpage: Habits of Grace.
Taking Faith Home Tuesday - Creating a Prayer Space at Home
Image from the Building Faith website
Where Christ is present in faith, Home is church, too!
While we miss being together in our church spaces dedicated to the worship of God, the spiritual truth is that God is everywhere, nut just at churches, temples and mosques. The power of dedicated sacred spaces lies in how they can help us focus our attention and love on God. So why not create a dedicated space in your home that you can turn to day by day for special prayers and devotions? Christian Educator Sharon Ely Pearson has some wonderful suggestions for us in this post at the Building Faith website.
Ted's Sermon: Praying Along the Road to Emmaus
Food for Your Soul Friday - Shelter in Poems from Poets.org
National Poetry Month just ended, and the readers of Poets.org shared poems to find shelter in during this challenging time. Take some time today or this weekend to let these words fashion a place of shelter in your soul. Share which poem especially spoke to you in the comments below.
“Waiting for Rain” by Ellen Bass
“Domestic Violence” by Eavan Boland
“Home” by Ciaran Carson
“Time to Talk” by Robert Frost
“who will be the messenger of this land” by Jaki Shelton Green
“The Raincoat” by Ada Limón
“Spring (again)” by Michael Ryan
“Twilight” by Marigloria Palma, translated by Carina del Valle Schorske
Find a wealth of poetry at poets.org.
Throwback Thursday - Mass Deportations during the Great Depression
Image from History.com. Click through to read the article.
As Episcopalians, in our baptismal covenant we commit ourselves to strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being. So as we enter a time of extreme economic stress, it is wise to learn from our American history the ways racism has manifested in the past so we can help fight it in our present. Here is a story from the era of the Great Depression when citizens of Mexican descent were thrown out of the country in the name of protecting the jobs of white people. The echoes to rhetoric and actions we hear today are unmistakeable and call for our just response. Read the article here.
Taking Faith Home Tuesday - Holy Hikes with the Psalms
The Cole Family Hiking this past Saturday in the Blue Hills Reservation
We here in the Boston area are blessed with an abundance of green places to walk in during this time of social isolation. And more than anywhere else, people report experiencing the divine in nature. Did you know the Bible is full of experiences of God in nature, most especially in the Psalms? Check out the Rev. Noah Van Niel’s post on Building Faith with resources for making a Holy Hike with the Psalms. There are versions for children/youth and for adults.
“Lead me to the rock that is higher than I; for you are my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy.” Ps. 61:2-3
Friday Food for Your Soul - Feminist Futurist Virtual Art Exhibit at Boston Center for the Arts
Just as we need food and air for our bodies, we need creativity and imagination for our souls. With physical spaces closed during this time, we invite you to take advantage of virtual spaces for the feeding of your soul. And as we live in a world closed down, we invite you to imagine the world that will open up on the other side and what we want that future to be through the Feminist Futurist Virtual Exhibit from the Boston Center for the Arts. Go explore the art and come back to share what inspires and feeds you in the comments below.
https://bostonarts.org/experiences/exhibitions/feministfuturist/
Throwback Thursday - Lessons from the past, Wisdom for the future
Constance and the other martyrs of Memphis are remembered as part of a larger window in All Saints’ Chapel at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. Sister Hughetta, the only nun to survive the yellow fever epidemic, moved to Sewanee, and in 1888, she and other sisters started what is now the Southern Province of the Sisters of St. Mary. Photo: University of the South
Each Thursday we will share something that looks back at our past, as Christians, as Bostonians, as St. John’s Jamaica Plain, as Episcopalians, to help, in the words of the old hymn, “grant us wisdom, grant us courage, for the living of these days…” Today learn about courageous women who faced infectious disease in their day:
‘Martyrs of Memphis’ have lessons to teach those battling COVID-19
The martyrdom of Constance and her five companions, who died within a month of each other while ministering to residents of Memphis, Tennessee, amid the 1878 yellow fever epidemic, has always inspired the ministry of St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral.
The Rev. Laura Gettys, the Memphis cathedral’s interim dean, told Episcopal News Service that the question is how to continue to live out the story and not leave it on the shelf as a legend from the past. She said that is especially true now as the COVID-19 pandemic inspires members of the cathedral but restrictions on movement challenge their ministries.
“On the days when I particularly feel overwhelmed, I’m mindful of what they did. They showed up and were faithful and were present to those who needed them the most. They were there for prayer, for love, for compassion, and many times for medical care,” Gettys said.
Ted's Sermon: What Does it feel like to be afraid to go outside?
Taking Faith Home Tuesday - Isolation Gratitude Jar
One of the key practices to dealing with times of challenge and stress is gratitude. If you can find things you are thankful for in the midst of difficulty, you will feel better and act with more kindness towards others. Another key practice is hope, keeping in mind the hopeful outcome towards we are striving. So here is a two-for-one faith practice for your home, heard somewhere over the internets and brought here to you.
Take a jar or other container and each day, write on a piece of paper something you will be grateful to do when this time of social isolation ends. As you name each thing, think about the last time you did it and how you felt. You may find that things you took for granted before you now carry a new appreciation in your heart and memory. If you are looking forward to doing something you have never done before, think about the capacity you have to new experiences, and be grateful for that.
Then, when you come into the spaciousness of the end of our isolation, take out your jar and do those things week by week or day by day. Remember what it is was like being isolated, and give special thanks for being out and free again to experience the goodness and wonder of the world.
Does being a Christian make a difference?
April 17, 2020
Does being a Christian make a difference? Why should I believe? Not surprisingly in a culture concerned with both appearance and results, these are questions seeking answers. The bottom line? What’s in it for me? We struggle for answers, as a defense of our worth and of the value of our life and worship. Does being a Christian make a difference?...While it may once have given an edge in the community, religious faith is no longer a manifest advantage, and rarely a substantial liability, to wealth or status.
--The Rev. Sam Potaro, Daysprings, Meditation for Tuesday of Easter II
Sometimes we struggle with questions because we think our answers should be automatic, apparent. We struggle because our response should be clear, factual and maybe even obvious and easy. But sometimes questions for which we don’t have an answer can lead us to an insight or discovery.
Friday Food for Your Soul - “The Light Changes (Everything)”
Here is an engaging article from the other side of the world, a reminder of the global nature of the pandemic and how the experience is the same and different when the seasons are inverted.
Last week, I had a panic attack.
Isn’t that cute?…
Read on at the link: The Light Changes (Everything)
Ted's Sermon: Easter 2020- Why am I thinking of zombies this Easter?
Happy Easter!
May the joy and blessings of this day be with you! We invite you to take a time of rest and re-creation with our final Holy Week coloring sheet from own Terry Boutelle to color, play and pray with. Enjoy!
Easter Sunday Services Are Online
Our Easter Sunday Worship began on YouTube and is on Facebook Live due to some technical issues on YouTube.
Please begin on YouTube.
Then continue on Facebook Live.
Happy Easter!
Register for Trivia Night!
Come one, come all - Virtual Trivia Night is this Saturday, April 18, 6-8 PM
If you log in with your family members, you will automatically be on the same team. If you login from separate devices, we are able to mix the teams up. Even if you have responded via the invite, please also fill out this registration form to better plan for our night!
Get all the event details on our evite:
http://evite.me/G8X2eCA3s4
Thank you!
Holy Saturday
We are in the liminal time of Holy Week between the darkness of Good Friday and the hope of Easter Sunday. Come together with fellow parishioners and everyone who joins us at tonight’s premiere of St. John’s Holy Saturday video, “Our Holy Week Journey.”
The video debuts at 7:30 PM Eastern time on YouTube.
A Collect for Holy Saturday
O God, Creator of heaven and earth: Grant that, as the crucified body of your dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the coming of the third day, and rise with him to newness of life; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Honoring Good Friday with the Stations of the Cross
The Rude Cross on the Stripped Altar
The Stations of the Cross is an old Christian tradition where we follow the path Jesus walked on his journey to the cross. Thanks to our own Ellen Davis, we have a Stations of the Cross from the website ProgressiveChristianity.org adapted to our neighborhood of Jamaica Plain. There are also an array of activities your can engage in at home to make the journey in your heart and imagination. A reminder if you choose to make the walk that you should wear a facemark and practice social distancing. Ellen has also set out a car Stations of the Cross which you can do in the relative safety of your vehicle.
Maundy Thursday in Our Homes and Online
Collect for Maundy Thursday
Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Today is the first of the Triduum, the Great Three Days that cap Holy Week and bring us into the joy and mystery of Easter.
Each day of the Triduum we will share a special email with ways you can practice the rituals and wisdom in your homes and in unity with fellow members of St. John’s wherever they may be. You can access the email directly at the button below, or check you inbox.