The Painted Prayerbook

A Gracious Plenty © Jan L. Richardson

Reading from the Gospels, Year B, Proper 12/Ordinary 17/Pentecost +8: John 6.1-21

For folks just tuning in, I want to mention that I’m mostly (though not entirely, as it’s turned out) taking a break from offering lectionary reflections this summer, as I’m up to my eyeballs working on a new book that’s due next month. Finishing a book in the midst of a hot and rainy Florida summer is proving quite a feat of endurance! Prayers are very, very welcome as I persist with the pages. Deadline pressures aside, I am glad to be so immersed in the making of a new book.

Every book seems to require and invite something different of me, and that’s certainly been the case with this one. One of the things I’ve especially felt a need to do has been to invite some folks to be in prayer for and with me. Writing is such solitary work that I sometimes forget that there are ways I can invite people into the process. In recent weeks I’ve become more intentional about doing this. The responses have been wondrous and heartening. Folks have offered not only prayers and blessings but also some tangible reminders of their presence in my life. My writing nook now holds such gifts as a prayer flag that artist friends painted for me, a string of prayer beads made by a friend who attached a St. Brigid’s cross of green marble from Connemara, a photo of my seminary girlfriends whom I gather with over Labor Day weekend every year, a buckeye (for luck) from a friend in Kentucky, a stone carved with the word “Presence,” and cards with wonderful words of support and blessing. My writer’s soul is feeling well fed.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about provision—how I seek it, how I offer it. Recognizing what I need can be a real challenge sometimes—and asking for it, even more so. Yet I’ve learned that in order to provide for others, in order to be a blessing to others, I have to discern what provision I need for my own self, and to seek it out. Though sometimes it comes unbidden, which is always a wondrous gift of grace, I find that it’s more likely to show up when I remember to invite it.

This Sunday’s gospel lesson about the feeding of the five thousand offers good food for thought as I continue to ponder what I need, what I’m hungry for, and what sustenance will carry me through these days, that I may in turn participate, like the disciples, in meeting people at the point of their own hunger.

I wrote a reflection on Matthew’s version of this miraculous feeding last year; I invite you to visit it by clicking this link: A Gracious Plenty.

This Sunday’s lection from John also includes a story of Jesus’ walking on the water. If you’re looking for some artwork to accompany this portion of the passage, I invite you to visit several earlier collages that I created for watery themes, including Matthew’s version of Jesus and Peter walking on the water (first image below). Clicking on each image below will take you to that image’s page at janrichardsonimages.com. Clicking the titles below will take you to the blog reflection where the collage originally appeared.

In these days, may we know and ask for the provision we need, that we may share in offering sustenance to others. Blessings to you!

Night Passage

Lent 2: In Which We Get Goosed

Lent 3: The Way of Water

Epiphany 1: Take Me to the River

This entry was posted on July 20, 2009 at 1:14 PM and is filed under art, Gospel of John, lectionary, Ordinary Time, writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.