Sunday, March 23,2008

Opening Music – “Spring,” Allegro 1, from The Four Seasons. Vivaldi. (Northsound, NorthWord Press, 1996)

Call to Silence and Opening Meditation

The Spring Equinox has been celebrated by cultures and religions since antiquity. For the ancient Saxons, Eostre was the Germanic lunar goddess, Ostara. Her feast day was held on the full moon following the vernal equinox – almost the identical calculation as for the Christian Easter in the west. The Venerable Bede (672-735 CE), a Christian scholar, first asserted in his book De Ratione Temporum that Easter was named after Eostre (or Eastre). Easter Sunday falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after March 20, the nominal date of the Spring Equinox. All of these Spring festivals celebrate rebirth and renewal. One of the most widespread symbols of renewal is the egg. In Mexico and the Southwestern United States, cascarones, confetti-filled eggs, are typically used during Easter as well as other special occasions. Having a cascaron broken (gently) over your head is said to bring good luck. There is even a legend concerning Mary Magdalene which says that she was a woman of some wealth and social status. Following Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection, she used her position to gain an invitation to a banquet given by Emperor Tiberius Caesar. When she met him, she held a plain egg in her hand and exclaimed “Christ is risen!” Caesar laughed, and said that Christ rising from the dead was as likely as the egg in her hand turning red while she held it. Before he finished speaking, the egg in her hand turned a bright red, and she continued proclaiming the Gospel to the entire imperial house. Today, many Eastern Orthodox Christians end the Easter service by sharing bright red eggs and proclaiming to each other, “Christ is risen!” The Christian celebration of Christ’s resurrection is synonymous with rebirth, rejuvenation, and renewal.

(Various sources)


Readings on Spring and Renewal

A Reading from Spring – Concerto in E Major , Vivaldi

Allegro
Springtime is upon us.
The birds celebrate her return with festive song,
and murmuring streams are softly caressed by the breezes.
Thunderstorms, those heralds of Spring, roar, casting their dark mantle over heaven,
Then they die away to silence, and the birds take up their charming songs once more.

Largo
On the flower-strewn meadow, with leafy branches rustling overhead, the goat-herd sleeps, his faithful dog beside him.

Allegro
Led by the festive sound of rustic bagpipes, nymphs and shepherds lightly dance beneath the brilliant canopy of spring.

(http://www.baroque-music-club.com/vivaldiseasons.html)

A Reading from Robert Frost, “ A Prayer in Spring”

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers today;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.
Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.
And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.
For this is love and nothing else is love,
To which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends he will,
But which it only needs that we fulfill.

(http://www.shortpoems.org/poem/2008/03/11/a-prayer-in-spring-robert-frost/)

A Reading from the Tanakh, Job 14:1-2, 7014a (from An Uncommon Lectionary, John Beverly Butcher, pg. 75)

A mortal, born of woman is short-lived and sated with trouble,
blossoms like a flower and withers,
vanishes like a shadow and does not endure . . .
There is hope for a tree;
If it is cut down, it will renew itself;
Its shoots will not cease.
If its roots are old in the earth,
And its stump dies in the ground,
At the scent of water it will bud
And produce branches like a sapling.
But mortals languish and die;
Humans expire; where are they?
The eaters of the sea fail,
And the river dries up and is parched.
So mortals lie down never to rise;
they will awake only when the heavens are no more,
Only then be aroused from sleep.
O that you would hide me in Sheol,*
conceal me until Your anger passes,
Set me a fixed time to attend to me.
If a person dies, can that person live again?

*(Sheol [pronounced “Sheh-ole”] in Hebrew is the “abode of the dead”)


A Reading from The Prophet, by Kahlil Gibran, “On Death”

Then Almitra spoke, saying, We would ask now of Death.
And he said:
You would know the secret of death.
But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?
The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light.
If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.
For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.
In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;
And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart drams of spring.
Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.
Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose
hand is to be laid upon him in honor.
Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king?
Yet is he not more mindful of this trembling?

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?
And what is it to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may
rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing.
And when you have reached the mountaintop, than you shall begin to climb.
And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

A Reading from Sri Chinmoy, “My Secret and Sacred Bird”

My secret and sacred bird now flies
To meet the Spirit's vacancy.
All chaos of life today dissolved;
In me a surge of ecstasy.
Gold flames within my longing heart
Invoke the cosmos’ Parent-Sun.
A tapestry of Truth unseen
Bursts forth within; the Play is begun.

(http://www.poetseers.org/the_poetseers/sri_chinmoy/index_html)

A Reading from the Gospel of Mary

. . . Will matter then be destroyed or not?

The Savior said, All nature, all formations, all creatures exist in and with one another, and they will be resolved again into their own roots. For the nature of matter is resolved into the roots of its own nature alone. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Peter said to him, Since you have explained everything to us, tell us this also: What is the sin of the world?

The Savior said There is no sin, but it is you who make sin when you do the things that are like the nature of adultery, which is called sin. That is why the Good came into your midst, to the essence of every nature in order to restore it to its root. Then He continued and said, That is why you become sick and die, for you are deprived of the one who can heal you. He who has a mind to understand, let him understand.

Matter gave birth to a passion that has no equal, which proceeded from something contrary to nature. Then there arises a disturbance in its whole body. That is why I said to you, Be of good courage, and if you are discouraged be encouraged in the presence of the different forms of nature. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

When the Blessed One had said this, He greeted them all, saying, Peace be with you. Receive my peace unto yourselves. Beware that no one lead you astray saying Lo here or lo there! For the Son of Man is within you. Follow after Him! Those who seek Him will find Him. Go then and preach the gospel of the Kingdom. Do not lay down any rules beyond what I appointed you, and do not give a law like the lawgiver lest you be constrained by it. When He said this He departed.

(http://www.gnosis.org/library/marygosp.htm)

Call to Conversation

Closing Meditation

There is a delightful legend associated with Eostre. She found an injured bird on the ground one winter. To save its life, she transformed it into a hare. But the transformation was not a complete one. The bird took the appearance of a hare but retained the ability to lay eggs. The hare would decorate these eggs and leave them as gifts to Eostre. With the gift of this egg, may we go forth in peace and hope and renewal.


We ask for your comments/thoughts to continue our Sunday conversation. Thank you.