Archive for May, 2010

Trinity Sunday: Into the Sacred Ordinary

May 25, 2010


A Spiral-Shaped God © Jan L. Richardson

Greetings from amidst the boxes! A month into my marriage, I’m finally getting serious about packing up the cozy studio apartment where I have lived for more than a decade. (It’s not just procrastination; I’ve had a few things going on!) I’m thrilled about having more space now that my sweetheart and I have moved into our new home, where I have a whole room that I’ll use as my studio/office. Yet I have loved living in the lovely, light-filled space of my wee apartment (300 square feet on a good day) and know there will be a certain poignance when I close the door here for the last time.

Sitting among the boxes during this afternoon of packing, taking a break with a cup of tea, I’m still thinking about the beginnings and threshold-crossings that I pondered here at The Painted Prayerbook a couple of weeks ago. As I wrap up (literally) the life that I’ve lived within these walls and carry my belongings and myself into a new space and a new season, we are crossing a threshold in the Christian calendar as well. In the rhythm of the Christian year, this Sunday is Trinity Sunday, which marks the beginning of the season that’s often called Ordinary Time. Ordinary Time is a loooong season that’s sometimes hard to get our liturgical brains around because there aren’t any major holy days that help us know where we are in the year and what we’re supposed to do. Yet this can be a rich time, because this season beckons us to ponder how and where we find the presence of the sacred in the ordinary dailiness of our lives.

For me, it’s a good time to be crossing into some new spaces both in the physical realm and in the terrain of my soul. Heading into this ordinary season (which, honestly, comes as something of a relief in the wake of the past months that have been wondrous but intense), I find myself wondering where I’ll meet the holy in the coming weeks and months. As I unpack these boxes and settle into the new rhythms that are emerging as Gary and I make a home together, how might the face of God reveal itself, challenging me to see in ways I haven’t seen before?

How about you? Where might God be hiding out in the midst of the moments—ordinary or otherwise—that will make up your life in the days to come?

As we move toward Trinity Sunday and into Ordinary Time, I invite you to visit my earlier reflection: Trinity Sunday: A Spiral-Shaped God. May you find many blessings amid the sacred ordinariness of the coming season.

Posted in art, lectionary, Ordinary Time, sacred time | 6 Comments »

In Which We Begin Again: Ascension & Pentecost

May 11, 2010

Marrying, moving, making a home with my sweetheart: these days are full of new beginnings. As I move through the changes and transitions that this season offers, I am mindful, too, that the Christian calendar is telling us much the same thing: this is a time that beckons us to start anew.

We are approaching the end of the Easter season. This week gives us the Feast of the Ascension (which falls on May 13; many churches will celebrate it on the 16th), and next week we will celebrate Pentecost. For the followers of Jesus, these two events—Jesus’ physical departure from earth and the descent of the Holy Spirit at the festival of Pentecost—were pivotal ones in the life of their community. These events called them to wrestle with questions they had not had to face during Jesus’ life. How would they follow Jesus when he was no longer physically present? What did it mean to become the body of Christ in this world? Enlivened by the Spirit, what new beginning were they being called to make?

As for the early followers of Jesus, and for all those who have sought Christ across the ages, the feasts of the Ascension and Pentecost beckon us to consider how God continually invites and inspirits us to begin again. These days challenge us to discern and imagine anew the life to which God calls us, both individually and in community. As we move through the coming days, what new beginning—large or seemingly small—might God be drawing you toward? What do you need in order to cross this threshold? Who could help?

Things may continue to be a bit sporadic here at The Painted Prayerbook as I cross this new threshold, settle in, and gear up for the travels and projects scheduled for this summer, but I look forward to easing back into the swing of things in cyberspace and being in conversation with you here. In the meantime, I invite you to stop by my earlier reflections for the feasts of the Ascension and Pentecost. Clicking the images or the reflection titles below them will take you to the posts.

Peace to you as we celebrate these festive days, and a blessing upon your beginnings!

Ascension/Easter 7: A Blessing at Bethany

Pentecost: Fire and Breath

Posted in art, Easter, lectionary, sacred time | 4 Comments »

A Blessing in Springtime

May 10, 2010


The Blessing Cups: Mary Magdalene and Jesus at Tea
© Jan L. Richardson

Hello, dear ones, and thank you for stopping by amidst my long absence from The Painted Prayerbook! What a wild and wondrous stretch of weeks (months) it has been. My sweetheart and I were married just over two weeks ago, on a bright spring day on the beautiful farm that has been in the Richardson family for several generations. It was an amazing day of being surrounded by family and friends who have shared this journey with us.

As Gary and I planned the celebration, the word that kept coming to mind was blessing. We wanted this to be a time of gathering up the folks who have been such blessings to us; to offer thanks; and for the day to be a blessing to them in turn. Toward that end, we invited a number of friends and family to offer blessings during our ceremony and reception. The words they offered—words of blessing for the community as well as for Gary and me—will linger with me for a long, long time.

I wanted to offer a blessing of my own for that day—to find some words to wrap around the extraordinary moment that Gary and I had been journeying toward for so long. Somehow, amidst the intensities of preparing for the wedding, some words showed up just in time, and I included them on the back of our printed wedding program. I offer them to you in gratitude for the ways that you bless me by sharing this path.

Here: A Blessing

Some other day, perhaps,
I could draw you a map of this place:
could show you the stand of trees
that has always seemed to me
haunted by those
whose arrowheads still surface
now and again by the lake;
could show you the spot
where eagles keep their nest;
the silo
where my grandfather and his siblings
carved their names
into the new concrete;
the place where I stood
the night the old depot burned.

But I think today is a day
for remembering
how all our history
comes down to our hands,
how we carry the lines
that our ancestors
pressed into our palms:
a geography of the generations
inscribed upon us like a map.

And so let it be
that before we leave
this place
this day
we lay our hands—
the cartography
ever etched into our skin—
upon this ancient terrain
in gratitude and praise

and then, rising,
turn them skyward:
a blessing
a benediction
a prayer
that the wind will carry
far and far
from here.

In these spring days (and in these autumn days, for my friends in the southern hemisphere), where are you finding blessings? How are you offering them in turn?

On another note, I want to let you know that as I move into our new house, I have a few pieces of art that I’m feeling ready to send on their way. These are pieces that have had a special place in my space and my life, but as Gary and I make a new home together, it feels like time for them to find a new home of their own. Perhaps yours? I have a few of the pieces remaining from the series The Hours of Mary Magdalene, along with The Lenten Series (created for Peter Storey’s book Listening at Golgotha), and am offering them at a reduced price for a limited time. Through June 15, pieces from the Magdalene series are available individually for $900 (originally $1200), and the entire Lenten series is available for $2400 (originally $3000). To view the Magdalene series, I invite you to visit The Hours of Mary Magdalene and click on the individual images to see what’s available. You can visit the Lenten pieces by clicking The Lenten Series. Thanks for giving thought to whether any of these images might be inviting you to take them home. If so, I welcome you to contact me by leaving a comment here (I won’t publish any comments related to an art purchase) or emailing me via my website at janrichardson.com. And know that art prints of these and other images are always available at that site and at janrichardsonimages.com.

Much gratitude and many blessings to you in these May days!

Posted in art, poetry, sacred time | 6 Comments »