Today’s first reading is…

It is the Lord who speaks:

I am going to lure her

and lead her out into the wilderness

and speak to her heart.

I am going to give her back her vineyards,

and make the Valley of Achor a gateway of hope.

There she will respond to me as she did when she was young,

as she did when she came out of the land of Egypt.

When that day comes – it is the Lord who speaks –

she will call me, ‘My husband’,

no longer will she call me, ‘My Baal.’

I will betroth you to myself for ever,

betroth you with integrity and justice,

with tenderness and love;

I will betroth you to myself with faithfulness,
and you will come to know the Lord.

Hosea 2:16,17-18,21-22

Let all mortal flesh keep silence

Again

Jesus said to his disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life and what you will eat, or about your body and what you will wear.  For life is more than food and the body more than clothing.  Notice the ravens: they do not sow or reap; they have neither storehouse nor barn, yet God feeds them. How much more important are you than birds!  Can any of you by worrying add a moment to your lifespan?  If even the smallest things are beyond your control, why are you anxious about the rest?  Notice how the flowers grow. They do not toil or spin. But I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of them.  If God so clothes the grass in the field that grows today and is thrown into the oven tomorrow, will he not much more provide for you, O you of little faith?  As for you, do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, and do not worry anymore.  All the nations of the world seek for these things, and your Father knows that you need them.  Instead, seek his kingdom, and these other things will be given you besides.  Do not be afraid any longer, little flock, for your Father is pleased to give you the kingdom.  Sell your belongings and give alms. Provide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out, an inexhaustible treasure in heaven that no thief can reach nor moth destroy.

For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.

A Prayer in Spring

Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
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,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfill.

-Robert Frost

Happy Easter!

Christians, to the Paschal victim
offer your thankful praises!

A lamb the sheep redeemeth:
Christ, who only is sinless,
reconcileth sinners to the Father.

Death and life have contended
in that combat stupendous:
the Prince of life, who died,
reigns immortal.

Speak, Mary, declaring
what thou sawest, wayfaring:

“The tomb of Christ, who is living,
the glory of Jesus’ resurrection;

“Bright angels attesting,
the shroud and napkin resting.

“Yea, Christ my hope is arisen;
to Galilee he will go before you.”

Christ indeed from death is risen,
our new life obtaining;
have mercy, victor King, ever reigning!
Amen.

Catholic Student Fellowship in the Tartan!

http://gordontartan.com/wordpress/?p=547

Gordon begins first Catholic Student Fellowship in Five Years

By Steven Fletcher.

Father Louis Bourgeois presided over Gordon College’s first mass on February 15^th in the Tavilla conference. Gordon College’s newest student ministry, the Catholic student fellowship, organized the event.

The Catholic student fellowship, under the co- leadership of Juniors Morgan Donovan, communication arts major from Brunswick, ME, and Sarah King, an English major from Boxton MA, began meeting at the start of the spring semester. The fellowship meets every Sunday at 7:00pm in the third floor chapel prayer room and attracts between three and six people.

“We wanted to give the Catholic students on campus some support,” said King. There are about 30 Catholic students on campus and the fellowship helps them feel that they have a presence and are part of a community in a protestant institution. They also provide rides to local churches for mass and confession.

The fellowship began with Laurie Truschel, director of student ministry’s, help. Donovan and King met with her to plan the budget and administrative details. “We didn’t want to do things without order,” said Donovan. The leaders didn’t know what to expect but were surprised with her support. The chapel office, according to Truschel, encourages students to start their own ministries. The Catholic student fellowship held its first meeting on January 21^st and drew 12 people.

“Half the people who showed up were protestant,” said Donovan. The Catholic student fellowship begins each meeting with discussion concerning Catholicism’s basic principles. They hope to inform both Catholic students and protestant students who come. The fellowship currently discusses Scott Hahn’s Signs of Life, a book about 40 different church traditions.

“Catholicism is a part of Gordon’s history, and it should be understood,” said King. “All aspects of Christianity should be expressed here.” The fellowship intends to repeat the mass, which drew 20 people at the 15^th, every month.

The Catholic student fellowship continues the legacy of groups like the Orthodox student fellowship and other Catholic groups history. “I think they put it on surer footing,” said Greg Carmer, dean of chapel.

“I’m really pleased with how things are going so far,” said Donovan

Thoughts on Spring

I just love springtime so much.  I think most people in New England do, it’s so full of promise.  Even though it is still Lent (barely!), I began to celebrate at the first sight of budding trees.  Celebrating spring includes planting spring things, buying spring things (wisely? you be the judge…), and reading spring things.

I was very happy today to find that both my daisies and basil plants have sprouted!  Inspired, I finally planted my salsa garden: tomato, cilantro, cayenne pepper, and sweet pepper.  The salsa garden, daisy, and sunflower (not yet planted) seeds were a gift from the nurse last year.  The basil seeds were from Mom (thanks, Mom).  It’s probably a little late for the tomatoes, etc (right?) but I figured I’d try anyway.

I also finally bought an umbrella.  It’s been raining for as long as I can remember, and, even though my feet are very much protected by my LL Bean Wellies (thanks, Dad), the rest of me has been defenseless.  I found a really cute umbrella at H&M for six bucks, but it’s rather too delicate for this weather we’ve been having.  It’ll have to do.

Another recent purchase (with an old Maurice’s gift card, hush.) was of course the floppy hat.  You know what I’m talking about?  I think it may even be pictured in the post titled “Home.”  Anyway, that’s more of a late spring, probably summer item really.  And I’m not even sure I’d wear it in public.  With a sundress?  Maybe.  Garden?  Yes.

And spring reading.  Well I’ve been reading a few spring things, but the only one really worth talking about is my prized collection of E. E. Cummings poetry.  He wrote the loveliest poems about spring, and every March I read through them.  Here’s a good one:

Spring is like a perhaps hand
(which comes carefully
out of Nowhere)arranging
a window,into which people look(while
people stare
arranging and changing and placing
carefully there a strange
thing and a known thing here)and

changing everything carefully

spring is like a perhaps hand
Hand in a window
(carefully to
and from moving New and
Old things,while
people stare carefully
moving a perhaps
fraction of flower here placing
an inch of air there)and
without breaking anything.

-E. E. Cummings

I’ll leave you with a song that isn’t necessarily about spring, but brings me almost as much joy.

Thoughts on Palm Sunday (Part Two)

The Promise of Palm Sunday

What could be more just than that you should serve him by whom you were created, without whom you cannot exist; and what could be more blessed or more sublime than to serve Him?  To serve Him is to reign.  “I will not serve,” man says to his Creator.  “Then I will serve you,” his Creator says to man.  “You sit down, I will minister, I will wash your feet.  You rest; I will bear your weariness, your infirmities.  Use me as you like in all your needs, not only as your slave but also as your beast of burden and as your property.  If you are tired or burdened I will carry both you and your burden, so that I may be the first to keep my own law.  ‘Bear one another’s burdens,’ we read, ‘and so you will fulfill the law of Christ.’  If you are hungry or thirsty and have nothing better at hand perhaps, and no other calf so well fattened is available, behold I am ready to be slaughtered that you may eat my flesh and drink my blood.  Neither need you fear that through the death of your slave you will suffer the loss of his service; even eaten and drunk you will still have me whole and alive and I shall serve you as before.  If you are led into captivity or sold, here I am, sell me and redeem yourself at my cost, or with myself as the price…If you are ill and afraid to die I will die for you so that from my blood you may make yourself medicine that will restore life.”

-Blessed Guerric of Igny

Free Ice Cream

You gotta love God’s perfect timing.

Lord, have mercy.