January Meditations

Good night prayer on 11th Street
A rustle of blankets startled me as I climbed the stairs to the street. A gap-toothed man asked me to pray for him and I asked his name. The two of us prayed as night fell and the traffic roared. Afterward Ronald curled up in his blankets leaving a cigarette burning on the concrete like incense.

Loss
This week there have been two deaths and a friend is getting divorced. Letting go of relationships that have been precious is painful. The holding of memories and stories are ways we say good-bye, and move into new stages of esteem. The God who is eternal overflows with esteem, stronger than death, that values us and connects us eternally.

Anger
Anger seems to be in the air. What is the pain to which anger is the reaction? We use the phrase blind rage. Can rage blind us to hurts, real and imagined, and our distorted thinking about them? Perhaps rage can also blind us to compassion and the joy that is to be found in connection. In any case we need to discover in ourselves and our communities the stillness in which these questions can be asked and answered.

Dance
Last week 160 teenagers packed into our parish hall pulsing with the energy of dance. In a poem by the same name, Michael O’Siadhail writes: “Openness. Again and again to realign./ Another face and the moves must begin/ Anew. And we unfold into our design./ I want to dance forever…”