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Lent

Turn the other cheek

Will love find a way?


Here are two clips from the 1990’s. Protest songs? The music is soft as a feather, but I think they drink from a deep well of power which resonates throughout generations.

If you turn the other cheek will you just get hit twice? – or can it be a form of passive resitance that forces an abuser of power to recognise their abuse?

And to finish, something only about a decade old – but which echoes words from one of the oldest of English stories of herosm and tragedy.

Can Love find a way? There are many experiences of Love, some bring tears, some laughter, but Love gives the strength to endure and transform.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1 Corinthians 13
Categories
Lent

2nd Sunday in Lent

the Introduction to the Gospel as told by John
Image copyright "Simon Lidwell" www.wordsmithcrafts.co.uk

And this is the link for the second Quartz Lent group meeting! We are international this year, with not only people from different towns in Scotland joining together – but from the different continents on this wonderful planet we share too.

The Quartz Lent 2021 Sunday discussion group can be joined here:

(from 2.50pm on Sunday afternoon)

Click to Join the Zoom Meeting at 3pm on sunday

The daily “Knowing Jesus” material and readings have started by exploring the start of the ministry of Jesus.

2020 and 2021 have been very strange, tricky to safely keep in touch with your friends int he same town – but it’s possible to contact people who have the data available worldwide. This week has been filled with stories about the people Jesus connected with – his supporters, but also on occasion, critics.

Jesus family and friends: Parents, Women Disciples, Men Disciples, Close Friends, The Family, Martha & Mary

We quite rightly tend to focus on Jesus, but what do we discover about Jesus through exploring the context he lives in?

(Both on earth and on a cosmic scale as referred to by the verse and the picture).

Categories
Febreflection Fresh Expressions

Faith and Art

Faith

It takes a lot of faith to be an artist. Politicians will tell you that you are unnecessary whilst relying on the creative industries to get their message accross. People will ask you what your proper job is, while you fight the preasure to place profit and exploitative working practices above integrity and your vocation. If you succeed, this is likely to be followed by a backlash where you question the quality of your work and if in doing something that is recognisable you have compromised the vision you know but can only just glimpse.

This should, and at times has, led to great shared experiences between artists and the Church. In some places, perhaps, even as the doctrine fades all that is left of the connection with God is the music, the truth of a right angle and a building which doesn’t fall down, or the painted ceiling which inspires people to look beyond their boundaries and encounter a change of heart and mind.

If any of this resonates with you, you may be interested in the work of this organisation.



Categories
Febreflection Lent

Passion and plants

This weaving, by Alison Fair Bixler, is inspired by plants and the Passion (of Christ)

“Plants and the passion…dyes from willow, Veronica, hawthorn etc”

The BBC radio programme is currently not available, but who knows what you will find if you look in the garden and online!

Link to the BBC radio page

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Febreflection

#Febreflection so far

Some images and thoughts from people taking part in #Febreflection in 2021

There are more! Find them online using #Febreflection

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creation Febreflection

Beauty

Beauty is both ordinary, understandable, here – and wonderful, incomprehensible, beyond.

What moments make you? Take time out to notice good things. #Febreflection #SensingSpirituality

Categories
Febreflection Lent Thought of the Day

Knowing Water

  • Water, being drawn from a well.

You think you know water. But how well do you know water? We experience snow, ice, steam, fresh and salt, different tastes. Water can be moving or still. Our experience can be of a silent, but very present mass, or a rapidly changing and noisy waterfall.

Water is essential to life on earth, but there is an enormous variety in personal experiences if it. It is quite possible to be afraid of water (experienced as, say, the sea) but to delight in drinking a fresh, clean, glass of it.

This years Lent group will be called “Knowing Jesus”. It will be an opportunity to deepen what we think we know – however much we think we know.

(Oh and this insight into water I think counts as my #Febreflection for today)

Categories
Febreflection Thought of the Day

Brigid

Telling stories at the start of February, and thinking about the story of St Brigid.

What was the King of Leinster thinking when he was offered the gift of a bride by one of his chieftains? How did he react then she gave away the chieftains sword to a leper in an act of heroic generosity?

Did Brigit consider the option of becoming like Esther and entering the royal court. Using her beauty to serve the kingdom of heaven and look after the poor from within a gilded cage?

Did her generosity, courage, and conviction to ally her life with slaves and outsiders make her too ugly for the Kings taste? Or threaten his confidence in his ability to match her skill and wit if he let her into his court? If someone is willing to pluck out their own eye to demonstrate their commitment to follow Jesus it is difficult to anticipate what they will do if given the keys to your treasure…

And so the phrase which is the featured image for this post becomes my #febreflection . Make of it what you will.

Categories
Febreflection Thought of the Day

#Febreflection Update

As people send things in to Quartz I’ll be posting them on this blog from time to time. Here are a couple from the first week.

More to follow!

Photo by Winfred Wilson

“The few snowdrops look so small and vulnerable in a threatening world, but they will survive.”

Winifred Wilson
Photo by Alison Fair-Bixler

Alison is working with paper made from recycled materials, the knowledge of trees, and will be binding her #Febreflections into a book.

Categories
Febreflection Thought of the Day

Golden Apples

We are wrapped in mirk, drenched in the spent blood of politics.

But today, on my table, while it sleets outside, I have an orange with a green leaf on it.

By the grace of God we can achieve wonderful things, and we should not forget that while we seek to reveal the potential the cosmos is pregnant with.

#febreflection