Be Good: Word Shop Newsletter August 2007
No matter how you teach it, school children often interpret the Gospel message as "Be good, follow the rules, stay out of trouble." This has something to do with stages of development, augmented and exacerbated by teaching material that leans so hard on this-is-how-you-should-behave.Unfortunately people who leave the church in their teens often think that the sum of Christianity is what they absorbed at age ten. This is augmented and exacerbated by the number of sermons (should they happen into a church) that lean heavily on thematic variations of this-is-how-you-should-behave.
At a Baptism one Sunday, I was struck by the prayer we read for the newly baptized. 'Being good' was summarily dispensed with by thanksgiving for the forgiveness of sin and the release into new life. The bulk of the prayer asked for attributes that are far too lofty and grand for us to muster up on our own: "Sustain them, O Lord, in your Holy Spirit, give them an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and to preserver, a spirit to know and to love you, the gift of joy and wonder in all your works." In short, the prayer asked for gifts from God.
Astonishingly little BE GOOD (follow the rules, stay out of trouble) here--especially considering how much drones forth from pulpit and papyrus. Rather, baptism confers a promise from God to transform our innermost depths. To the praise and the glory of his name. For our good and the good of all his people.
"Joy is the serious business of heaven." - C.S. LewisAs threatened last month, I read Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, $5.95. It's good--deep and serious, muddling about in the dark places where spirituality and creativity intersect. However, about three quarters of the way through I suddenly had enough of deep and serious. I wanted to dig my elbow into his ribs. This may be because Steven has missed several First Tuesday Writers Groups, and therefore I have been underquota for digging my elbow into deep and serious.
I jumped to William Zinsser's On Writing Well, which was priced at $3 and is rollicking and simple. Although it's supposed to be about writing nonfiction, the insights on the craft are widely applicable. A quarter into it, I upped the price to $4. My elbow stopped twitching. Halfway through I discovered a terrific chapter with succinct editing suggestions--a condensed version of Browne's Self-editing for Fiction Writers. I decided to copy the chapter for the Writer's group. I decided to keep the book. I'll find you one if you want. It will probably cost more than $4.
"It has been said that writing comes more easily if you have something to say." - Sholem AschThis fall I'm teaching a 6-week writing class for home-schoolers, 4th grade and up, beginning Tuesday, Sept. 4 at 11:00. The class is technically full, but I can probably squeeze one more in. It's called Story Building and costs $60. We'll get together for three weeks and then take a week break while I tromp up to Alaska to do a children's program.
Which reminds me, we are overrun with homeschooling books. How about a grand sale the first two weeks in September? Take what you want for a donation of any amount. There maybe a few exceptions to this, but we have full shelves and lovely boxes of goods waiting under the table on the deck. We need to thin down and bring in the treasures before the rains come. How about a complete Bob Jones First Grade English program and TE of Math? Come and see.
"Raising children is a creative endeavor, an art rather than a science." - Bruno BettelheimI try to pray--mornings with my Bible, grace at meals, evenings before falling asleep. Arrow prayers into his unfailing presence. The big challenge recently has been to pray in the thick of the day: to stop, breath the name of Jesus, rest. You would think the earth would implode if I stopped for 15 minutes. For a while I used Joyce Rupp's The Cup of Our Life to stay focused. You are supposed to choose a cup for this series of meditations. I decided to use a different cup every time. (Of course you did, said Michael.) I was a week or so into it, with several lovely mini-essays on different cups, when Susan cleaned the cluttered corner and the book disappeared. I suppose somebody bought it. What do they think this is, a bookstore?
"Prayer is man's greatest means of tapping the infinite resources of God." - J. Edgar HooverBecause I liked Garry Wills's historical romp through the Popes in Why I am still a Catholic, I grabbed his book, The Rosary, off the intake pile. I'm not big on saying the Rosary, but was interested in its history. Apparently, folk in the middle ages weren't able to spend an hour every morning with their Bible in their lap and their coffee on a cup warmer. The laity wanted some spiritual discipline like the monastic hours, which are tricky in the throes of normal life--especially without the ability to read or get books.
Memorizing the 150 Psalms was an early option, but that was too hard for most. Right. I used to walk from the store to the beach and back in a circle which included going up 150 stairs. Feeling the very model of nobility and virtue, I thought it would be cool if I could do a line from each Psalm while climbing the stairs. This grand idea fell down whatever abyss this sort of grand idea disappears into, the combined difficulty of 150 stairs and 150 psalms beyond the strength of both flesh and spirit.
Wills explains how the Rosary emerged as a way to meditate on various aspects of the faith. In the midst of reading about the sheer mechanics--five decades of beads separated by a larger one--I suddenly remembered I had once bought an "Anglican" rosary. I rummaged around and found it. Four sections of seven beads. Seven--a good Holy Spirit number. Let's see, the Roman Rosary now includes four types of "mysteries," each of which has five mostly gospel scenes to meditate on. I could try one of the types in each set of seven, which leaves two beads....
At this juncture my math failed. I could have called my friend Joy, who would have had a blast with the numbers, but instead I turned to Anne Lamott's Grace Eventually. She's not as raw as she used to be and still provides jolly cheetos and M&M's spiritual nourishment.
When I got back to Wills' Rosary, I realized the bulk of his book contains meditations on each of the mysteries--lovely devotional readings augmented (but not exacerbated) by reflections on Tintoretto's paintings of the life of Christ. Color prints of the paintings are included. Dumping the beads, I folded the book into prayer times. Turns out I initially picked the book up on the feast day of the assumption of Mary. Gotta watch those assumptions.
Rumor has it that Pope Benedict said other Christian churches are defective. Of course, this is true. Why would anyone think that the Romans have exclusive rights to defectiveness? --AD +Despite our defects The Word Shop is still standing, an amazing thing in this day of disappearing bookstores. This is not, I hasten to add, because of our innate skill or cleverness. (I suppose that's obvious.) Rather we remain because we are a gift. The gift of staff, of sponsors, of books and buyers. The gift of grace.
We are celebrating The Word Shop's 12 years (twelve!) on Friday evening, October 19, at the Aptos Academy Auditorium. The revels will include a short, half hour show and tables around the perimeter of the auditorium highlighting various ministries of our friends. Food too! Tickets for this Literary and Ministerial Extravaganza will be $5 in advance and free at the door. I hope you will all participate.
"I'm always ready to "go with the flow" when I'm reasonably certain I'm in the right current." --Vi OllyI've gone on too long and haven't yet mentioned the great children's books Jean brought, or the books from Zach's Bible college years, or Carolyn's Tolkien & Lewis, or Julia's popular fiction and prayer, or the 30 days with Julian & Hildegard or my Orthodox display or....
Goodness.
Blessings,
Alliee +
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