Rose Madrid-Swetman

If you are like me, I am always looking for good resources to follow the church calendar and bring an awareness to our congregation how to journey together through our Story. Christine Sine has put together some amazing resources that you can find here

I hope your journey through this week of the Passion of Jesus results in great joy on Sunday!

I barely have time to reflect long enough to write any kind of meaningful post. Life is very full right now. Full of really good stuff. I leave on Monday morning to spend five days on beautiful Whidbey Island. The first two days with two women to begin planning a Northwest Region Women’s Conference for 2010. Then on Wednesday morning David Ruis and 15 songwriters come over for a two-day retreat. I am going to cook for them and just be a fly on the wall as creativity abounds. I come home on Friday just in time for the Missionality and Kingdom training that we will be hosting through Saturday. Then Saturday night David will lead us in worship with music and arts and then it will be Sunday again….whew!!

I am hoping to spend time on Whidbey writing for my dissertation. My dissertation project has been accepted and it is in the works.

In the meantime, Alex started baseball season so there is either a practice or a game every day - so fun to watch only we need the weather to figure out it is spring - it’s cold out there!

That’s if for now..

Grace has posted thoughts I have had the last few weeks in her post “Absurdity Abounds” here

I have not had much time to blog lately and I still don’t. A couple of things caught my attention this last week. First this article by internet monk.

The second this video from Rick Joyner.

What are your thoughts on one or the other or both?

Hi everyone,
I am in the process of beginning my dissertation. I need help doing a blind survey. If you would let all your friends ages 17-35 know about this I would be most grateful. I need them to visit my blog and either in the comments or by email to office@vineyard-cc.org and answer the following questions. Again, I need you to be 17-35 years old. All answers will be anonymous. I will use as research for my project and will own the rights to print them (anonymously) in other media. I am trying to reach 200-250 responses.

Again, please let as many as your friends know about this survey. Log into my blog and either answer the questions below in the comments or copy and paste the survey with answers into an email and send them to office@vineyard-cc.org

Survey

1. How old are you?

2. What gender?

3. Do you ascribe to any religion?

4. If yes, which one? Please describe if you are an active participant in your religion and what that looks like for you.

5. If no, please answer the following:

a. If you were going to investigate spirituality which brand of faith would you be interested in learning more about?

b. Why?

c. If you were going to join a spiritual community, what would you like the gatherings to be like, i.e., a church service, a small group meeting that has discussion, spiritual practices, would there be singing or music involved? Could you describe what kind of gathering you would find interesting and how often you would want to meet? Please try to describe in detail all of the different elements you would like included in a gathering of people exploring faith and spirituality together.

I didn’t see Ted Haggard on Oprah or Nightline or Larry King. My first thought when I heard he had been on these shows is that it seemed too soon for him to be in public. It seemed too soon from the standpoint of recovery. These kinds of situations usually take years of healing before a person is ready to go public. A couple of good posts are here and here.

I went to see Doubt last week and thought it was one of the best movies I have seen in a long time. Maybe it’s because I was raised Catholic and went through twelve years of Catholic school in the same era the film is portraying. was in third grade at the time the movie is set in and so many of the issues in the movie which were very complex I found fascinating. What a powerful portrayal of the way a parish worked in the 60’s. Thanks to Alan Creech if you have seen it and want to interact with how to think about it you can visit a great blog that I have now bookmarked, A Nun’s Life where there is some great dialogue about the movie. If you have seen the movie I would love to know your thoughts.

Lots of really great stuff happening and lots going on. VCC is growing and healthy. We have some important decisions to make about how we will go forward. Lots of prayer and planning this month.

Alex turns 11 on Friday. I cannot believe he is already 11. Time goes by so fast. He wants to go to Tasters Wok for dinner with his brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews (this has become a tradition) and then on his actual birthday which lands on a Friday this year he is having 3 of his friends for a sleep over. What a joy he is to us. He is a good boy, sensitive and kind. I think he is a bit introverted which is so interesting to me because he has two very extroverted parents - well at least one very high extrovert (Rich) and me, I am more right on the mid-line…I get energy from being with people but I definitely need time alone, for silence, reflection and thinking. I see Alex a bit more like that. He loves being with people but definitely needs his down time. I so enjoy him. He makes me laugh and he makes me proud.

I am going to try to keep blogging but I am coming to the end of my course work and will have to really buckle down to write my dissertation so my blogging will be a bit spotty. I am, however, going to begin writing my story. I am going to write some of it as notes on my facebook page as I can control who is reading it there. A public blog seems a bit to vulnerable for that kind of writing so I won’t be posting any of it here for the time being. If you are interested in following that story you can find it on my facebook page.

I think 2009 is going to be a very good year. I am hopeful and expectant for what this year will bring while at the same time trying to live in the every day moments of my life.

I wish a very joyous, blessed 2009 to all of you.

From the Celtic Daily Prayer Book

This night is the eve of the great nativity
when those who are longing await His appearing.

Wait, with a watchful heart.

Listen carefully, through the stillness;
listen, hear the telling of the waves upon the shore.

Listen, hear the song of the angels glorious–
e’re long it will be heard
that His foot has reached the earth:
news–that the glory is come!

Truly His salvation is near
for those who fear Him,
and His glory shall dwell in our land.

Watch and pray, the Lord shall come.
Those who are longing await His appearing.
Those who listen await His cry.

Watch…
Wait…
Listen…

This night is the long night.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

Even so, Come Lord Jesus

Advent/Christmas, the entire season is really my favorite time of the year. I love autumn but I really love this time of year. I have wonderful memories of Christmas through the years. My mom would make Italian Christmas cookies, candy and lots of pasta. Christmas Eve we would go to midnight mass and then come home and open one present before going to bed, always new pajamas!
My mom would set out milk and Italian cookies (scallini), divinity fudge but not just for Santa, she would tell us that Jesus and the apostles would come and sit around the table as well. Imagine as a small child thinking, “Jesus and the apostles are sitting at our table tonight?” That was just as exciting to me as Santa coming.
Christmas morning my parents would always leave a “big’ gift unwrapped out for each of us, this was our gift from Santa. One year it was a bike, another a Chatty Kathy doll (I loved that doll?) another an Easy Bake Oven…
Christmas meant, peace, giving, receiving, good food, family, church, very fond memories.
Somehow over the years I have grown to love the entire season, beginning with Advent. Embracing not only celebrating that Jesus came as a baby over 2000 years ago, but living in hope that He will come again and when He does, everything, all sickness, death, violence, war, mental illness, addictions, poverty, everything will be put to right. This is how I celebrate the four weeks of Advent and the season of Christmas.
Each week we as we light the Advent candles we have reflected on each candle and asked the question, “how can I give and receive the gift of hope, peace, joy and now today, love?”
Today we had to cancel our worship gathering because of weather, we would have listened to folks from our community tell a story of how the light of Christ came into some part of their darkness this past year. Then we would have had a talk on how to“ receive” this Christmas. We would have sang carols together and closed in prayer.
Today, in order to practice waiting for Christ to come in all His forms into my life, I will light the Advent candles with my family, sit in stillness for 15 minutes and receive the love of God into my entire being and then we will sing some Christmas carols. This week I will try to be mindful of how the light of Christ comes into my life moment by moment. As I drive around town and see Christmas lights I will look at them in wonder and allow them to shine into my soul and use them as moments of prayer to ask God to shine his love into the hearts of those that are suffering and in pain.
I wish you a wonderful, blessed Advent/Christmas season.