Category: Flourishing Today

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A Fanfare For The Feast Of St. Mary The Virgin. August 15, 2022

Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Mary the Virgin, the principal feast of Mary in all branches of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic church, and even in some Protestant churches as well. Considering that she is regarded as the greatest of the saints, today marks the chief saints day which the church commemorates year by year.

In the Episcopal Church and Anglican tradition, Mary is honored in a full expression of devotion. In my seminary’s pattern of worship, at the Chapel named Saint Mary The Virgin, (Nashotah House), we began every service with praying the Angelus to the sounding of the Monastic Bell. I still offer this devotion when I stop my day to pray the Noonday Office. It brings calm presence to me.

I am grateful to have served two parishes that held services not only in the main sanctuary but also a “Lady Chapel” – a side Chapel named for Mary. Many people found a quiet place of stillness and silence welcoming them into the presence of Christ.

It has always been a cherished Feast Day for many, and for me too. Mary said yes to the Incarnation. She stood at the foot of the cross as her son was crucified. For these reasons I created a musical Fanfare to celebrate and remember all the many Eucharists I have celebrated in “the Lady Chapel” and all the associations God has given to me with Mary, the Mother of God.

May it be a graceful contemplative offering to you. Listen, pray, and contemplate the Icon of Mary. ( Earphones are best). 

With you on The Journey and The Way,

Rob+

 
 
 
 
 
 

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The Serenity Prayer: Lenten Wednesday Reflection Week Four

Todays reflection is centered on this line of the Serenity Prayer: “Trusting that You will make all things right, If I surrender to Your will.”

There are three invitations: To trust, to surrender, to align our hearts with the will of God.  Each of these become real to us as we grow in our “Surrender To Love.” As David Benner has said:

Surrender is foundational to Christian spirituality and is the soil out of which obedience should grow. Christ does not simply want our compliance. He wants our heart. He wants our love and he offers us his. He invites us to surrender to his love.

The Serenity Prayer is a rich source of spiritual guidance for our daily living. May you find it to be true!

With you on the Journey, 

Rob+

 

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The Serenity Prayer: Lenten Reflections Week Three

Taking as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it.

Trevor Hudson, shares these words in today’s reflection from the Serenity Prayer: 

“How can we live in a positive way in the midst of the evil and sin that surround us?”
 
This part of the Serenity Prayer meets us right at the center of this question. It begins by acknowledging the reality of a sinful world.
 
It also proposes adopting a particular attitude toward it, a stance that springs from the way God relates to our world.”
 
God hates nothing he has made. God so loves this world, that he sent  his only Son not to condemn the world, but to heal, save, and redeem it. To accept, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it, is to start with a foundational yes and embrace it. He acted not from the small ego, but from the largeness of his soul.
 
May we “take this world” as God loves it, and seek to be those who do not condemn, but bring healing and mercy. 
 
With you, 
 
Rob+
 

 
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“The Ultimate Concern” – Sermon For October 10, 2021

I’m after a deep, authentic, and healthy Christian spirituality and life. It is my deepest longing. Spiritual formation and growth are my hearts desire. It has been my true north in parish ministry and my earthly pilgrimage. It still is. 
 
Over the years, pastors have become many other things: visionaries, entrepreneurs, community organizers, social activists, social media experts—not all bad.  Leadership today requires these kinds of skills. 
 
Yet there is something  more ancient, timeless: curer animarum, “the Physician of Souls.”  
 
This is the heart and core of my Ordination Vows, to be a spiritual guide, to awaken the souls desire and longing, and to induct others into the spiritual life. This is the central role of the life of a priest. 

The Gospel story of the Rich Young Ruler, Mark 10: 17-31, reveals our deepest longing as human beings made in the Image of God.  My sermon approached it with three dynamics: 
 
1. DAWNING AWARENESS SOMETHING IS MISSING: THE GIFT OF LONGING
2. THE SACRED GAZE OF GOD: JESUS LOOKED AT HIM AND LOVED HIM.
3. ULTIMATE CONCERN – FOLLOW ME
 
As C.S.Lewis wrote in his magisterial book, Mere Christianity:

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
 
May you come to accept your longing as divine urgency.
May you know the urgency with which God longs for you.
 
– John O’Donohue
 
With you on the Journey, 
 
Rob+ 

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Bread For The Wilderness, Wine For The Journey, And The Feeding of The Five Thousand.

Cover to Fr. Rick Lord’s Album, on which I played drums. Rick Lord composer, guitar and vocals.

In 1984, my twin brother and fellow priest, Rick Lord, recorded a contemporary worship album titled: “Bread for The Wilderness – Wine for The Journey.”

It is collection of worship songs, light rock in style, from that era in the early 1980’s. These songs attempt to capture an awakened joy in Christian faith during the early days of ministry. I was on staff with Rick at Church of the Apostles in Fairfax, Virginia. Rick invited me to be the drummer for the Album. It was a great time to use our musical gifts from our “Rock and Roll” days! We even formed a band called “The Priest Band!!!” 

I mentioned this song in my homily today at Emmanuel Episcopal Church. The lyrics speak to our deepest hungers and longings, finding sufficiency in The Eucharist, in Jesus, who is The Bread of Life.

Brings back wonderful memories of the spiritual renewal moving through the Church in those days. Love Ricks composing, vocals, and guitar work. Hope you enjoy it. You can also listen to the full album on Spotify. Look up artist Rick Lord. Its also available on his website for purchase: http://www.ricklord.org/

With you on The Journey, 

Rob+

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Draw Me Into Your Friendship

Coptic Icon: “Christ And His Friend.” – 8th Century, Egypt.
Lord Jesus, from the start
You invite ordinary people to come to where you live.
 
When they come, you welcome them
and call them to labor and rejoice with you.
 
You are the most beautiful among men,
and I hardly believe you want me for your friend.
 
You are powerful, Lord.
 
Draw me more and more into your friendship
and lead me along the way you took with friends.
 
Joseph Tetlow, SJ, retreat director and author
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Beyond Forgiveness: A Transforming Friendship

Coptic Icon: “Christ And His Friend.” 8th Century, Egypt

It is very important to remember and to always keep before your mind this fact:

You are an unceasing spiritual being, created for an intimate and transforming friendship with the creative Community that is the Trinity.

On the Sixth Sunday of Easter we hear these remarkable words of Jesus:

“I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.”  John 15:15

What is God’s passionate desire? What does God deeply want? For us? 
 
We are here because God wants us here. We have been desired into life. Our very existence embodies God’s passionate longing for our friendship. 
 
Jesus calls us to follow him, to make our home in his love: “Just as the Father has loved me – there! – That is how much I have loved you.” Being a Christ follower is to be his cooperative friend.
 
I concluded my sermon by referring to a very moving Icon: The Icon of Christ and His Friend (see above).
 
Nowhere is this image of God drawing close to us more profoundly demonstrated than in this, the oldest known Coptic icon, written in the 8th century in Egypt and depicting Christ and Abba (Abbot) Mena (285-309 A.D.) currently hanging in the Louvre in Paris.
 
In the icon we notice the unusual position of Christ with his arm around ‘the friend’. This embrace can be seen as demonstrating the change of status we have with Christ. He no longer calls us servants but rather friends. 
 
Christianity is more than forgiveness of sins. It is at its core, a Transforming Friendship.
 
Thanks to Trevor Hudson and William A. Barry, SJ for their writings on the subject of God’s desire for a transforming friendship, a friendship like no other! 
 
With you on The Journey, 
 
Rob+
 
– Ambient music by Rob Lord+
 
 

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The Open Door of Present Risenness

It was a joy to be Celebrant and Preacher on Easter Day as the Interim Rector of Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Orlando Florida. Here is my homily based on John 20:1-18. 

May you always find the courage each day to say “yes” to the Present Risenness of Jesus, welcoming him each day with joy. Here is a prayer I say every morning from Celtic Daily Prayer.

The Opening Door

“Enter, Lord Christ— I have joy in Your coming. You have given me life; and I welcome Your coming. I turn now to face You, I lift up my eyes. Be blessing my face, Lord; be blessing my eyes. May all my eye looks on be blessed and be bright, my neighbors, my loved ones be blessed in Your sight. You have given me life and I welcome Your coming. Be with me, Lord, I have joy, I have joy.” 

(From Northumbria Community, Celtic Daily Prayer)

Blessed Easter my friends, 

Rob+

 

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