We are all one.

 This weekend I enjoyed an annual event in my family--watching The Masters golf tournament. Well, we didn't watch it much when we were kids, but by the time we were young adults, being a golfing family ourselves, we took great pleasure in the annual April event from the gorgeous course in Augusta, Georgia.

I miss not being able to watch it with my parents now, all of us offering commentary, advice and past stories throughout the tournament. 

One thing worth noting this year: the first Japanese player won! Hideki Matsuyama, a 29 year old, 10 year professional who had won as low amateur at the Masters ten years ago. The commentators shared great remembrances and history of all of the fine Japanese golfers that had played in the Masters over the years and telling the audience that Matsuyama will become a national icon in his golf-crazy native country after this win.

How wonderfully ironic and blessed news this is as it comes at the most prestigious US golf event, right at the time of the racial prejudices against Asians. The pious might say, "God works in mysterious ways!"

Easter Vigil 2021

The story, in its entirety, would be 3 1/2 hours long! Here's the short version.

Saturday night, April 3; 6:15 p.m. an electrical power outage hits our area of Harborcreek.

8:00 p.m. We begin the traditional Easter Vigil service after much scurrying to find:

• a portable mic system
• scores of flashlights/battery-operated lighting devices, especially for each musician,
• contacting all the principle players, including Fr. Bob Brugger, who is a "prince of a guy" for going along with us in this (ad)venture! "Jesus probably didn't have electricity at the Last Supper," he wisely noted, "so I guess we can do without it, too."

What you see above is a concoction of three smaller lights held together with blue duct tape,

mounted on a stand at the primary lectern--looks like something out of Star Wars to me!

Do you remember MacGyver (1985-1992) where Richard Dean Anderson played a genius-level guy who solved tough cases by jury-rigging whatever was at hand to get in and out of situations for each week's dilemma--fighting for the good guys? That's exactly what our Sister Mary MacGyvers did for an hour getting set up for this not-to-be-soon-forgotten Easter Vigil. BTW: an updated MacGyver has been on since 2016--an undercover government agent who uses ingenious engineering techniques in his weekly cases.

Here's what the north side of the chapel looked like. 

Yes, there were four emergency lights on. 

Here's the south side.

And here are my orchestra bells with a lantern-type flashlight 

hanging with fishing wire so we could get it to

illuminate the music and the steel bars equally!

The lights came back on at 9:45 p.m. just as Communion was ending and the organ had time to warm up for the last song--which gave new meaning to rousing.

To all of our next year's guests---sure, we'll try to duplicate it in 2022---just for you!

Easter

 "Black Swallowtail"

The caterpillar,
interesting but not exactly lovely,
humped along among the parsley leaves
eating, always eating. Then
one night it was gone and in its place
a small green confinement hung by two silk threads
on a parsley stem. I think it took nothing with it
except faith, and patience. And then one morning
it expressed itself into the most beautiful being.

Mary Oliver

Good Friday

 "Broken, Unbroken"

The lonely
stand in the dark corners
of their hearts.

I have seen them
in cities,
and in my own neighborhood,

nor could I touch them
with the magic
that they crave

to be unbroken.
Then, I myself,
lonely,

said hello to
good fortune.
Someone

came along
and lingered
and little by little

became everything
that makes the difference.
Oh, I wish such good luck

to everyone.

How beautiful it is

to be unbroken.

Mary Oliver

April Fool's Day--7:00 a.m.

 

Holy Thursday

 "Coming to God: First Days"

Lord, what shall I do that I
can't quiet myself?
Here is the bread, and
here is the cup, and
I can't quiet myself.

To enter the language of transformation!
To learn the importance of stillness with one's hands folded.

When will my eyes of rejoicing turn peaceful?
When will my joyful feet grow still?
When will my heart stop its prancing as over the summer grass?

Lord, I would run for you, loving the miles for your sake.
I would climb the highest tree
to be that much closer.

Lord, I would learn also to kneel down
into the world of the invisible, the inscrutable and the everlasting.
Then I will move no more than the leaves of a tree on a day of no wind,
bathed in light,
like the wanderer who has come home at last
and kneels in peace, done with all unnecessary things;
every motion; even words.

Mary Oliver

Palm Sunday

 "The Poet Thinks about the Donkey"

On the outskirts of Jerusalem
the donkey waited.
Not especially brave, or filled with understanding,
he stood and waited.

How horses, turned out into the meadow,
leap with delight!
How doves, released from their cages,
clatter away, splashed with sunlight!

But the donkey, tied to a tree as usual, waited.
Then he let himself be led away.
Then he let the stranger mount.

Never had he seen such crowds!
And I wonder if he at all imagined what was to happen.
Still, he was what he had always been: small, dark, obedient.

I hope, finally, he felt brave.
I hope, finally, he loved the man who rode so lightly upon him,
as he lifted one dusty hoof and stepped, as he had to, forward.

Mary Oliver