Lenten Worship Music Friday (I)

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I had not intended to post any Youtube videos during my Occupying Lent thing but I had this song stuck in my head when Daniel and I were walking around the church yesterday afternoon. I think I’ll make this a weekly thing and just post commentary on whatever videos I use. 🙂

So… this is a setting of a portion of Psalm 51. (I always read the Psalms from the King James version, not because I am a KJV-only Christian but instead because I love how the Elizabethan English reads.) It’s one that I’m not sure where I learned — possibly the Episcopal church I attended in San Jose but it also could have been college. In any case, it’s one that we used as a confession of sin during “contemporary” services when I became a Lutheran.

As you can hear (and see), it’s a simple enough song that it works for youth group and camp. (I actually have it on a camp music CD from a Lutheran camp in northern California.) I love it because it implants that bit of Scripture in the hearts of the kids. I look forward to teaching it to Daniel once he’s older.

7 Quick Takes — Occupying Lent, Veggie Burgers, and #ashtag Loveliness

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7 Quick Takes

Wow! My first couple days of Lent have been sooooo amazing! I’m just gaining so many insights into my faith and… yeah, I’ll just shut up now and move on to my Quick Takes.

— 1 —

Please help my friend Paula win an award from Circle of Moms. Her daughter Anna has Maple Syrup Urine Disease (MSUD) and has been waiting two years for a liver transplant. Their transplant blog was nominated to be in the Top 25 Moms with Inspiring Families. If you’re a mom, please go vote. At last glance, she was #26 or #27.

— 2 —

I have a mirror site for my Lenten writings on WordPress.Com. Want to read my Lenten writings (which are crappy thus far) but do not want to have to look at my eeevvvvvvvvviiiiiilllllll Obama button? Go here. You’re welcome.

— 3 —

Need some ideas for food on meat-free days? Priest’s Wife has a great entry on meatless means for manly men. My recommendations are Gardenburgers and various Morningstar Farms products (both in your freezer section). I can personally vouch for both brands’ iterations of Portabella/Mushroom Lovers burgers and spicy black bean burgers. I’m also a fan of Morningstar Farms Tomato & Basil Pizza Burgers and their veggie corn dogs. (Truthfully, I prefer them to regular corn dogs.) I can’t speak highly of Morningstar Farms breakfast products because the texture is just wrong to me and I’m also mildly allergic to eggs (i.e. no breakfast sandwiches) for me. My vegetarian husband, however, loves their veggie bacon and veggie sausage patties and links.

— 4 —

I know that the vast majority of you are Catholic but I have a source for interesting and worshipful music. Ron Pogue at Unapologetically Episcopalian posts Morning and Evening Prayer every day and includes a Youtube video of sacred music each time. Some of it is Anglican chant (which is incredibly beautiful) and some of it is classical music. He’s also on Facebook which means that you can get it in your news feed… if you haven’t given up Facebook for Lent. 😉 If I didn’t already have a devotional that I use, I’d totally do Morning Prayer using his site and my Book of Common Prayer.

— 5 —

Along the lines of interesting and worshipful music for prayer, I can’t recommend Pray As You Go enough. I used to use this (in addition to Our Daily Bread) during my hour-long commute to work in Montana. It was mostly silent prayer but there was always some kind of music at the beginning and it spanned the spectrum from Taizé to chant to Ladysmith Black Mambazo. I also used the silent time after I hit mile marker 379 on I-15 to pray for people.

— 6 —

My thanks to Kate for coming up with the idea of posting pics of our #ashtag loveliness on Twitter. (Thanks to Beth Anne for compiling them.) My tweets are protected so here are my pics of me rocking my #ashtag.

Me with my ashes
What I normally look like (with ashes)

Me attempting to look happy.
Me attempting to look happy and not like I’m fasting.

Me with the uncooperative bear child.
Me with Mr. Uncooperative.

— 7 —

For want of a simple salt, a woman and her baby died today. What? You didn’t hear about that on the evening news? Oh wait… that’s because it happened in the Third World! Quoting the Preeclampsia Foundation website:

Globally, preeclampsia and other hypertensive disorders of pregnancy are a leading cause of maternal and infant illness and death. By conservative estimates, these disorders are responsible for 76,000 maternal and 500,000 infant deaths each year.

One of the treatments for preeclampsia (to keep it from jumping to full-on eclampsia) is magnesium sulfate (MgSO4), a simple salt that we refer to in the USA as “Epsom salt”. The shortage of a solution of that salt (the concentration needs to be specific) and the lack of a medical professional trained in its usage means the mother and baby die. Want to help combat that problem? Sponsor me in the Promise Walk for Preeclampsia.

For more Quick Takes, visit Jen at ConversionDiary.Com.

Publicly Proclaiming Our Sinfulness and Welcoming Others

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All day yesterday, the Facebook page of the Episcopal Church showed pastors out giving “ashes-to-go” to people outside of churches and hospitals and at train stations. Various articles have been written on the Ashes To Go practice including one written by Lauren Winner, evangelical “It Girl” and professor at Duke Divinity School. (She was also recently ordained an Episcopal priest and serves St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Durham.)

In her article, Winner talks about how this is wholly appropriate because Christ was crucified in a public place. Quoting her:

I would add that there is something about Ash Wednesday — the day the church sets aside for people to acknowledge, before God and one another, our mortality, our finitude and our moral failings — that suggests taking this particular liturgical action into the streets (besides following, as it does, the public revelry of Mardi Gras, Fat Tuesday). We are going into public with our ashes because Jesus died in public. He didn??t die in the Upper Room surrounded only by his disciples.

What ministers with their ashes are offering is a bodily marker of God??s entry into our death. The ashes Cathie will inscribe on my forehead, and I on hers, let me name truths that most days I cannot or will not name — that I have sinned; also, that I have a body, and I am going to die. To walk around all day with a cross on your head is to walk around in a body inscribed with death. It is also, oddly, to walk around inscribed with hope — the hope that comes through Jesus?? having joined us in our mortality.

I have to agree… I run with a number of Catholics online and there was a popular Twitter hashtag called #ashtag in which people (myself included) posted pictures of themselves (and in one case with their significant other) with their ashes. For many people, Ash Wednesday is a day when people can publicly claim to be Christian and wear an outward sign of their faith in the form of the ashes on their foreheads. I recall Winner mentioning the statistic about more people attending church on Ash Wednesday than on Christmas or Easter in her book — something about the need to show their families and loved ones that they were indeed Christian and that their salvation was somehow assured for another year.

Ashes To Go works on a level that I think most strictly observant Catholics and other liturgical Christians forget: there will be those who for whatever reason cannot make it to church on Wednesday because they’re so busy. It’s not that they don’t want to be observant — it’s that they have work, kids, a commute, and everything else. Daniel and I made it to the first 15 minutes of worship (long enough to receive our ashes and hear the collect) and the only reason we did was that we live around the block from the church. Had I faced the tasks of making dinner, feeding Daniel and myself, getting both of us ready, driving to church (especially if it would have been 20 minute drive on gravel roads like it was in previous parishes), and then trying to keep my grumpy two year old occupied, I probably would have skipped it or at least told Jon to bring ashes home to me. (To those who read my blog and are that observant with more than one kid, you guys are rock stars and you have my props.) There are a number of people in that position. They may not have children or their children may be old enough to make dinner but there’s also homework, squeezing in housework, baths, putting the children to bed, and then bills to pay.

I feel that as we go through Lent, we should be mindful of those who may want to believe or who may believe and feel uncomfortable passing through the doors of a church for whatever reason. If one feels led, they should pray for them; but mostly, I feel like we should find ways of helping them engage their faith as a step toward moving them into reconciliation and community with others.

Ashes on Wednesday

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It’s Wednesday now and the fun is over. The pancakes have been eaten, the Coke has been drunk, and it’s now time for some introspection, prayer, and tonight will come the ash cross on my forehead. (I’ll post pictures.)

OK… so those non-Christian and/or those who are not big on Church history are asking “Jen, why ashes?” Well… back in “the day”, one showed sorrow by donning sackcloth and rubbing ashes on oneself.

“Therefore I abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes.??
–Job 42:6

“Is it a fast that I have chosen, A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, And to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, And an acceptable day to the LORD?”
–Isaiah 58:5

“Then word came to the king of Nineveh; and he arose from his throne and laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth and sat in ashes.”
–Jonah 3:6

Looking at the Isaiah passage, we come to the basis for the day. This is the first day of Lent, a season of reflection on oneself and one’s sinfulness. The 40 days commemorate the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert, the 40 hours He spent in the tomb, and the 40 years the Israelites spent in the wilderness. (“40” is kind of a big deal number in the Bible.) Before anyone accuses me of bad math, Sundays don’t count because they’re “mini-Easters”. (I’ve always thought that the “Sundays don’t count” thing was a slacker argument but who am I to argue with generations of tradition and practice?)

I’m not technically fasting today in that I’m eating; but I’m avoiding meat and also avoiding Coke. My plan during Lent is to avoid Coke as much as possible and try to break myself of the addiction. I know that I’ll probably fall but I’d like to at least try. I’m also not eating meat on Fridays and I’m fasting between 12-3 on Good Friday. (I’m an ex-Episcopalian. What can I say?) One of my meals will be some potato soup I have thawed out and another will be ramen.

OK… enough giving a basis to today. Now to live the life!

The Simple Woman’s Daybook: February 20, 2012

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Simple Woman's Daybook

FOR TODAY February 20, 2012

Outside my window… gray and yucky when I got up. Much nicer now though probably still cold.

I am thinking… that it was a good idea to give Daniel some Benadryl after his second (?) vomit episode this morning. He’s on juice and Cheerios at the moment and we’ll add stuff in as he does better.

I am thankful… for the goulash and spaetzle I brought home with me from my parents’ house. It was two meals worth that I didn’t have to cook.

In the kitchen… the leftover goulash and spaetzle. Also coming up with meatless ideas for this week.

I am wearing… blue maternity shirt and penguin pajama bottoms.

I am creating… ideas for posts for my Occupying Lent category.

I am going… to check on Daniel when I’m done with this.

I am wondering… why my Obama button looks so skewed on Firefox even though I re-sized it and re-uploaded the smaller version.

I am reading… Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis by Lauren Winner. I also snuck in The Chocolate Castle Clue by JoAnna Carl this weekend.

I am hoping… I don’t have a dentist visit this week given my jaw pain.

I am looking forward to… my massage on Friday and my brother and sister-in-law coming on Saturday.

Around the house… clean living room floor. Yay!

I am pondering… what to write about on Wednesday when I start my Occupying Lent series.

A favorite quote for today… “The real problem is not why some pious, humble, believing people suffer, but why some do not.” — C.S. Lewis

One of my favorite things… teryaki chicken at my favorite sushi/noodle bar.

A few plans for the rest of the week: PT tomorrow, speech and Ash Wednesday on Wednesday, OT on Thursday, massage and cleaning on Friday, and time with family on Saturday.

Hosted by The Simple Woman’s Daybook

Occupying Lent This Year

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Lent Link-Up

The last time I actually had a Lent where I participated fully in things like Ash Wednesday and Holy Week was 2008 — in other words, before I had Daniel. In 2009 during my pregnancy with him, I was too sick to go to Ash Wednesday and Palm Sunday. He was born on the Tuesday of Holy Week so any Tridiuum activities were also effectively off the table. The next year, I did make Ash Wednesday but I was incredibly depressed after the move to California and stayed at my in-laws’ house with Daniel while Jon went to Holy Week. Last year, I had a child in the PICU on Ash Wednesday though I did half-heartedly make the effort to be there for Wednesday soup suppers (though I never stayed for worship afterwards). I made it for Palm Sunday but Holy Week didn’t exactly happen other than staying for a little bit of Maundy Thursday.

So… I’ve been puzzling on what my Lenten thing will be and I seem to have come upon the idea of extra blogging on faith things as my discipline. Lately, my blog has been all about The Simple Woman’s Daybook and Quick Takes which means that I’m not really blogging enough. So… from Ash Wednesday onward, I’ll be posting on faith issues under the category “Occupying Lent”. (Why yes, the name was inspired/stolen from the Occupy Lent on the Twitter. How ever did you figure that out??? BTW, thank you to Kate for introducing me to it.) I’ll still be doing my weekly memes but I think this extra posting will be a good discipline for me.

Oh yeah… there’s also the no meat on Ash Wednesday/Fridays/fast between 12-3 on Good Friday thing. I thought about giving up meat for all of Lent but I need the protein a bit too much. Giving it up on Fridays is hard enough because I usually go to the local sushi/teryaki place to eat and read in peace and their lunch special is some sort of teryaki meat. My anniversary falls on a Friday this year so that should also be interesting.

Before I close, I’d like to point out that I’m Lutheran and none of this is required for me. 🙂 I take on Lenten disciplines for the simple reason of growing close to Jesus during this season.

7 Quick Takes — Prohibitions Against Brown M&M’s, the Promise Walk, and Lent

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7 Quick Takes

— 1 —

NPR’s Facebook page posted an interview with David Lee Roth on the prohibition of brown M&M’s in the Van Halen dressing room It has to do with compliance to stage safety and is not one of those random rock star quirks. It was a simply fascinating interview and you can view it here.

— 2 —

Jennifer from Our House will be bringing her adopted son Joshua home from Eastern Europe in a few days. She and her husband were gone from their family for four weeks as they were in Joshua’s home country doing all the necessary things to adopt him. The whole thing has taken almost seven months from start to finish and I am completely overjoyed (as a mom who had to wait to take her baby home) that she is headed back overseas on Sunday to bring him back with her to the States.

— 3 —

I’ve maintained that whoever puts up the first political attack ad will automatically lose my vote. The winner: my Congressman. Is it so hard to run a clean campaign? It’s not even March yet! If I’m having to change channels now, I shudder to think what it will like this August/September.

— 4 —

I managed to catch an interesting case on Judge Judy when I was watching on Wednesday night. I should have waited to switch laundry around in the wash house because I missed the last part of a case where a couple are claiming that a friend totaled their car and expect her to pay off the note. I don’t know how it was resolved but one of the things that blew my mind was that the couple was allowed to take out a car loan without having both liability and collision coverage on their insurance. No lender that I know of allows you to borrow money from them unless you can prove that you have both. There was also the matter of their speech. You don’t get “drove” to work — you get “driven”. It has been a long time since I’ve heard the English language butchered that badly. (The “drove” thing was just the tip of the iceberg.) The rest of the cases were entertaining but not as memorable as that particular one.

— 5 —

My cough from the MUTANT DEATH COLD is gone! Serious props and my thanks to Lisa of All Things Gale for her suggestion of a spoonful of honey. I had forgotten that honey has antiseptic properties and is something I put in my tea when I get bronchitis. Yay for homeopathic remedies! Go visit Lisa and congratulate her on the birth of her son Roman on February 15th!

— 6 —

I’m pondering what my Lenten sacrifice will be. I’m Lutheran so doing something for Lent is encouraged but not required. I came to faith in the Episcopal Church however so I *always* do something for Lent. I’ll definitely be going meatless on Fridays (which I try to do anyway during Lent) but I haven’t figured out what I’ll add or give up. Some thoughts are giving up soda (as Coca-Cola is my comfort food), giving up meat for the whole time, or perhaps not petting fluffy cats. (I have one next to me who is biting me.) After my pancakes on Mardi Gras, I’ll figure something out.

— 7 —

I’m participating in the Promise Walk for Preeclampsia in May. As a survivor of HELLP Syndrome (a variant of preeclampsia — it’s why I had to have an emergency c-section at 29 weeks with Daniel), I participated for the first time last year and it was an awesome experience. It was healing to do it last year and I’m excited to be able to participate again! Please consider sponsoring me.

For more Quick Takes, visit Hallie Lord at BettyBeguiles.Com who is graciously hosting this meme while Jen pushes toward the end of her manuscript.