On Stories and Holy Ground

For the last 3 weeks, members of my church have been meeting in small groups online for Safe Conversations - honest, vulnerable looks at stories and experiences of racial prejudice and bias and our own, often-subconscious responses. For me, it keeps coming back to the stories. Listening to someone else's reality without judgment or critique. Listening to learn. Listening for what is holy.

Holy Ground Come. Let me move myself over. Sit a while and share with me your story. Let your words Filter through the cracks and fissures of my world, past my certainties and creeds and the neat arrangement of my understanding, until they take shape, and grow. Stretch the sinews of my conviction. Push my inner parts aside. Let your story hollow out in me new holy ground and let me witness God’s eternity in you. © Carol Shaw 072120

Cuaresma, Cuarentena

In Spanish, the word for Lent is Cuaresma. The word for quarantine is cuarentena. But the word cuarentena is also a rarely-used synonym for Lent. This year, during Lent, the world itself made a sacrifice of change and isolation. May we, like Jesus, come out of our desert stronger, with lessons learned.

Las palabras cuaresma y cuarentena tienen una misma raíz. Pero cuarentena es también un sinónomo poco usado de Cuaresma. Este año, durante la Cuaresma, el mundo mismo ha hecho un sacrificio de cambio y aislamiento. Esperemos que, como Jesús, salgamos de nuestro desierto más fuertes, con lecciones aprendidas. 

..............................

Cuaresma/Cuarentena

Ven.

De la ceniza de

tu miércoles

no queda huella.

La cuaresma está

por terminar.

Abraza tu desierto.

El ruido, déjalo atrás.

Entra al silencio

de esta santa cuarentena

hasta que lo único

que queda es respirar.

Tu viernes

se vestirá de luto; 

el sábado de

gloria y confusión.

Pero el domingo renacerá

en destellada Luz

que convertirá

en catedral

tu solitario balcón.

-cs 041120

(Loose translation into English)

Lent/Quarantine

Come.

Of your Wednesday ash

not a trace is left.

The Lenten season is

coming to a close.

Embrace your desert.

Leave the noise behind.

Come into the silence

of this holy quarantine

until all that you can do

is breathe.

Your Friday

will dress itself in mourning;

Saturday in turmoil 

and in glory.

But Sunday will be born anew

in blazing Light 

creating a cathedral

of your lonely balcony. 

-cs 041120