It is believed to be one of the most photographed places in all of Ireland (including Northern Ireland), rivaling that of the Cliffs of Moher, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Trinity College, and numerous castles and the greenest scenery imaginable. Approaching the northeastern most edge of the Emerald Isle are these trees that appear rather surreal. They are called the Dark Hedges: scores of beech trees alongside a road that led to a Gregorian style mansion, as the owner attempted to mesmerize his guests while they ventured towards his home. It is believed they were planted around 1775, taking generations for them to create this visual masterpiece of the natural world.
I can’t remember when the tradition started, but it’s usually the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend that my one aunt and some of her family make the trip from Columbus to the farm where she, my other aunt, and my dad grew up with my grandparents. She meets up with my mom and whomever else can join at one of the town cemeteries, where my grandparents, and other family from generations past, are buried. They bring flowers and take care of those precious resting places. Of course, it’s not only about pulling some weeds and planting in some natural forms of new life on the site of mortality. It’s about sharing stories and laughter and joy over memories and of on-going family love-filled moments.
Pastors are often asked about their call story: how they discerned spiritually or otherwise that public ministry was for them. Some might focus on a couple influential individuals or events where they felt God was reeling them down the ordained route. For me, several people and seemingly holy instances had me wondering if something was going on there. The final straw might have been the college choir.
Tomorrow (May 8), the wider church celebrates Julian of Norwich; considered one of the most important children of God in enhancing the spiritual life.You can obviously do your own research on her life from over half a millennia ago (although, unfortunately, we don’t know much), but from the Friends of Julian of Norwich based out of her native England:
Julian of Norwich (1342-c.1416) is known to us almost only through her book, The Revelations of Divine Love, which is widely acknowledged as one of the great classics of the spiritual life. She is thought to have been the first woman to write a book in English which has survived…[It] is based on a series of sixteen visions she received on the 8th of May 1373. Julian was lying on, what was thought at the time, to be her deathbed when suddenly she saw Christ bleeding in front of her. She received insight into his sufferings and his love for us.
Amidst the hustle and bustle a couple weeks ago was the annual Renewal of Vows service for rostered leaders (pastors and deacons) in our Northeastern Ohio Synod. Of course, if you ventured onto social media then, you would have seen our sister synods providing the same time and space for their church leaders: from our neighboring Northwestern Ohio Synod to the Northwest Washington Synod. The idea was for all these ministers to have a bit of…“be still and know [God] is God” amidst the Holy Week hustle and bustle, for starters. The actual renewal of vows was for these relatively new and veteran clergy and all in-between to hear, yet again, the vows they professed at their ordination. It’s a time of re-centering, a time of solidarity, a time of tending to the soil of our heart.
