Famous

Two people from ZERA (Jen Grabarczyk and David Rice) made it into the papers recently. Admittedly, it was the Belltown Messenger, and, admittedly, it had nothing to do with ZERA, but nevertheless, I can't shake the feelings we're well on our way to global renown. Or, at least, we're in good company.

Actually, a kick ass article on Mars Hill Graduate School. http://www.belltownmessenger.com/062008/062008-044-feature.html

He is Risen

ELISABETH WIERZBICKA
http://pagesperso-orange.fr/welart/act_en.html

Ash Wednesday

The kickoff of Lent. A day to turn around, to leave behind harmful pieces of one's life. This (Fat Ash) Thursday, ZERA will be marking our forheads with ashen crosses, as we move into Lent...

WIKIPEDIA SAYS
In the Western Christian calendar, Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent and occurs forty days before Easter (excluding Sundays) It can occur as early as February 4 or as late as March 10.

At services of worship on this day, ashes are imposed on the foreheads of the faithful. The priest, minister, or in some cases officiating layperson marks the forehead of each participant with black ashes in the shape of a cross, which the worshiper traditionally retains until washing it off after sundown. The act echoes the ancient Near Eastern tradition of throwing ash over one's head to signify repentance before God (as related in the Bible).

The priest or minister says one of the following when applying the ashes:

Remember, O man, that you are dust, and unto dust you shall return. (Latin: Memento homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris.)
—Genesis 3:19

Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel.
—Mark 1:15

Repent, and hear the good news.
—Mark 1:15


The ashes may be prepared by burning palm leaves from the previous year's Palm Sunday celebrations. In some churches they are mixed with light amounts of water or olive oil which serve as a fixative.
....

Lent, in most Christian denominations, is the forty-day liturgical season of fasting and prayer before Easter. The forty days represent the time Jesus spent in the desert, where, according to the Bible, he endured temptation by Satan.

The purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer—through prayer, penitence, almsgiving and self-denial—for the annual commemoration of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, as celebrated during Holy Week, which recalls the events linked to the Passion of Christ and culminates in Easter, the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In Western Christianity, Lent lasts from Ash Wednesday until Maundy Thursday. The six Sundays in Lent are not counted among the forty days because each Sunday represents a "mini-Easter", a celebration of Jesus' victory over sin and death.

Fat Tuesday

The prelude to Lent. This Thursday ("Fat Ash Thursday" for our community) ZERA will be feasting on lasagna as a nod to Fat Tuesday while honoring a personal story, before we turn towards ashes and readiness for Lent. Today is the day to use up the luxury food items (traditionally by making pancakes) while preparing to enter a season of solemness. Historically, this made sense as a last celebration of Winter food stores (that were about to go bad) and a bracing for the tough months ahead while anticipating the coming of Spring (and a fresh food supply). We paired our tough season with the reminder that Jesus faced tough seasons as well... including 40 days without any food.

Quote for the day: "I don't feel like I'm being invited into Lent, more like I'm tazered into it." (MIPC staff meeting)


WIKIPEDIA SAYS:
Fat Tuesday ("Mardi Gras" in the French) is the day before Ash Wednesday (the beginning of Lent), and is also called "Shrove Tuesday" or "Pancake Day".
...
The reason that pancakes are associated with the day preceding Lent is that the 40 days of Lent form a period of liturgical fasting, during which only the plainest foodstuffs may be eaten. Therefore, rich ingredients such as eggs, milk, and sugar are disposed of immediately prior to the commencement of the fast. Pancakes and doughnuts were therefore an efficient way of using up these perishable goods, besides providing a minor celebratory feast prior to the fast itself.
...
The word shrove is a past tense of the English verb "shrive," which means to obtain absolution for one's sins by confessing and doing penance.

Listening for a Whiff

Wendy H brought this excerpt from Capture the Castle (Dodie Smith) to our Thursday night group this week.

“I tried to explain: ‘Well, once you stop believing in an old gentleman with a beard . . . It’s only the word God, you know – it makes such a conventional noise.’

‘It’s merely shorthand for where we come from, where we’re going, and what it’s all about.’

‘And do religious people find out what it’s all about? Do they really get the answer to the riddle?’

‘They get just a whiff of an answer sometimes.’ He smiled at me and I smiled back and we both drank our Madeira. Then he went on: ‘I suppose church services make a conventional noise to you, too – and I rather understand it. Oh, they’re all right for the old hands and they make for sociability, but I sometimes think their main use is to help weather churches – like smoking pipes to colour them, you know. If any – well, unreligious person, needed consolation from religion, I’d advise him or her to sit in an empty church. Sit, not kneel. And listen, not pray. Prayer’s a very tricky business.’

‘Goodness, is it?’

‘Well for inexperienced pray-ers it sometimes is. You see, they’re apt to think of God as a slot-machine. If nothing comes out they say, ‘I knew dashed well it was empty’ when the whole secret of prayer is knowing the machine’s full.’

‘But how can one know?’

‘By filling it oneself.’

‘With faith?’

‘With faith. I expect you find that another boring word. And I warn you this slot-machine metaphor is going to break down at any moment. But if ever you’re feeling very unhappy, well try sitting in an empty church.’

‘And listening for a whiff?’

We both laughed and then he said that it was just as reasonable to talk of smelling or tasting God as of seeing or hearing Him. ‘If one ever has any luck, one will know with all one’s senses – and none of them. Probably as good a way as any of describing it is that we shall ‘come over all queer.’

‘But haven’t you already?’

He sighed and said the whiffs were few and far between. ‘But the memory of them everlasting,’ he added softly. Then we fell silent, both of us staring at the fire. Rain kept falling down the chimney, making little hissing noises. I thought what a good man he is, yet never annoyingly holy. And it struck me for the first time that if such a clever, highly educated man can believe in religion, it is almost impudent of an ignorant person like me to feel bored and superior about it. For I realized that it wasn’t only the word ‘God’ that made me feel like that.”