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Praying about the flow of time: Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year

Lynne Baab • Thursday October 3 2024

Because Rosh Hashanah is this week, I’ve been pondering New Year’s celebrations. God created us and placed us on this beautiful earth with rhythms of day and night as well as the rhythms of seasons. I wonder if yearly rhythms are imprinted in us, and we feel a need to mark one place in the yearly cycle as an end and beginning. I wonder if we need New Year’s celebrations to nudge us to reflect on the past and experience hope for the future with others.

Of course, January 1 or Rosh Hashanah are not the only New Year’s celebrations. Many New...

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Praying about the flow of time: The Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels

Lynne Baab • Wednesday September 25 2024

Michaelmas daisies bloom in the fall and come in various shades of purple, pink, and white. I first heard about Michaelmas daisies in a novel set in England that I read as a young adult. At that time, I thought “Michaelmas” was an odd name for a fall-blooming daisy. I had no idea Michaelmas is a day in the church calendar, originally celebrating the archangel Michael. Later, two other archangels, Gabriel and Raphael, were added to the day.

Michaelmas is observed in Western Christianity on September 29 and on November 8 for Christians in the Eastern traditions. The suffix “mas” comes from...

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Praying about the flow of time: The Season of Creation

Lynne Baab • Tuesday September 17 2024

Sturdy, spreading oak trees. Tall evergreens. Lacy Japanese maples with hints of red and orange. Drooping flowering cherries. Spiky palms. Hillsides covered with deep green trees. An individual tree in winter, bare branches dusted with snow.

Creator God, we praise you for trees. We remember moments when trees have lifted our hearts. We also think of wood studs and joists that provide form for our dwellings, and we thank you for the beauty and utility of trees.

Oil slicks on puddles, and oil leaks into rivers and lakes. The residue left by car tires, washed by rain into streams and rivers, damaging salmon...

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Praying about the flow of time: Our Lady of Sorrows

Lynne Baab • Tuesday September 10 2024

I have been thinking a lot about sadness. My family moved 12 times in my first 15 years, and my mom was sad about the moves and affirmed my sadness as valid. Other than that, sadness was always viewed as a failure of thankfulness. I was supposed to be thankful that I wasn’t poor like my mom was in her childhood and teen years. Grateful that I had nice clothes like she didn’t have. Thankful that we could go on nice vacations like she never got to do. Grateful that I didn’t have to do farm work many hours a day...

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