Hello everyone,
Just a reminder that we'll be live blogging on Tuesday, Feb. 9 at 7:30 p.m. Judy Collins will be our host for the evening and we'll be discussing the chapter titled "Holy Week," found on page 157. Looking forward to discussing this with all of you!
23 comments:
Thanks, Patricia, for the idea of presenting a few questions ahead of time for discussion. Here goes!
1) Have you ever taken part in a life-changing event? Lauren seems to think a Palm Sunday procession was a deciding moment for her. I think of the peace rally I attended while in college. Viet Nam was on the lips of so many of my friends and I was "stuck" in a music conservatory practicing while everyone else made banners, posters and prepared to march in Washington for an end to war. I still remember the day I put on a black arm band and ran smack into my advisor. I think it was probably the first time I verbalized my true feelings about anything!
2) Footwashing. Now that's another life-changing experience! I first did this as part of a worship service on a seminary retreat. I thought "I can do this. No big deal." WRONG! It was humbling and extremely emotion-filled for me. I was fine with washing someone else's feet, but to have someone humble themself in front of me was so much more servant-filled! Which would be more difficult for you? Why?
3) p167 "You met her(Rena)and you knew she loved God." Does your life tell others you love God? In what way?
4) p172 "They didn't kill Him; the weight of our sin killed Him" Want to comment?
5) Friends play an improtant role in Lauren's faith journey. Do friends play an important role in your spiritual journey as well? How?
and last....
6) Lauren says she's a bookworm. Do books play a significant part in your life? What subjects and why?
I know that it seems that death is always a life-changing event but losing my mother at age 16, after six long years of an illness changed my life forever. I am, good and bad, who I am because of those events. At the time, it made me very angry at God as well and it took me a long time to come back to Him because of that life-changing event.
Aloha -
I read the part of the book discussed today and don't have it with me so my comments may be limited. I can admit to being a bookworm, particularly when I am away. I like to have things to think about and evaluate.
I too love books -- couldn't live without them. I often have at least four or five books on vacation. I've taken to reading a lot about World War II lately, puzzled about how much was kept secret about the treatment of the Jews and how each European country suffered.
I have always enjoyed reading - especially getting to know the characters. "Francie Nolan" in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn was my "bookworm idol" until I encountered Lauren Winner!
Footwashing: The church I grew up in used to hold a lot of women's retreats. I remember doing footwashing at one and I remember it being more than humbling ... I remember it feeling too intimate for my liking. Even with all the study/preparation beforehand.
I can sympathize with Kim but certainly cannot share her depth of emotion. My mother was diaagnosed with tb when I was about 6 but I never admitted to myself she might die, and she lived to be 93. Her death was something I never could imagine would happen until it did. We went to great lengths to keep her alive short of putting her on a respirator. There is still pain when I think of her but not the kind I would have had had she not had a full long life. Her death was carried out according to her living will, so it was just as she wanted it, which was a comfort.
I am thinking back to those retreats and thinking how my family has always been a part of my spiritual journey, but not really friends. When I was a young adult, a lot of my friends had already stopped being involved "in church." Of course the journey lasts a lifetime and I have made plenty of new friends at Trinity
I thought Lauren seemed a lot less conflicted in this part of the book than in Lent.
I enjoyed her story about Viv making bread for communion and she tells Lauren that she only uses Perrier because of a verse in the Bible -- then later tells her she was only joking. Made me think of the WOT cookbook!
Yes, the author seemed more "in control" of her feelings in this section. Even when she is uncomfortable (the Passion Play, the idea that the Jews killed Jesus), she seems to be able to deal with it..
Since I went to a Lutheran grammar school and high school and a Lutheran college as an undergraduate and keep up with many of my college and high school friends, I have found that practically all are very active in their churches - much more so than I thought some of them would be -- even through so terrible tragedies == a daughter and sister commiting suicide, a son-in-law killed in the world trade center on 9/11, divorces and deaths of spouses. Their upbringing really made a difference.
I enjoyed reading the parts about the seder. For several years now (well, before we became parents anyway - seder lasts a long time), Ed and I were blessed to be invited to the home of friends who are Jewish to share the seder with them and their family and other friends, both Jewish and Christian. To me, unlike the reading of the Passion, the communal reading of the Haggadah seems very natural and moving to me.
I agree with Patricia's comment that she seemed more in control. Her comment about the great unresolved puzzle of her life made me think that while she is conflicted she seems to accept all the pieces as part of a journey
Hey book lovers, I just re-read the line where she says that the seder is the best kind of meal for a bookworm because you are not only allowed, but enjoined to read a book at dinner. Mostly I read now at my desk at lunch, which is not all the enjoyable, but by the time I am finished with other things at home now, I am too tired to read at night.
Pat I love reading at lunch at work. It gives me a break from what I've been working on. I have to pull the book out of Kate's hands when we have dinner -- she'd read constantly too!
Speaking of the WOT cookbook, I am looking for some recipes from people in my book group at Trinity such as a someone named Patricia. Did you notice that a woman submitted a recipe for communion bread. The ingredients sounded as if it would be cleansing in more ways than one.
Off topic, but perhaps I will submit some recipes right after this discussion. Problem is that I mostly cook from cookbooks and I don't want to commit copyright infringement.
Judy Collins can't log in but she'd like to refer to her fourth comment about "They didn't kill Him, the weight of our sins did." A lot of her reason she's more focused is becauce of her friends. (Which leads into point five)
I am now reading "The Secret Message of Jesus" by McLaren which is the April book for our Sunday morning book group. I'm looking forward to the discussion. I just finished "The Looming Tower" about alqaeda and the road to 9/11. Dal is down on the beach reading it now with my book in the beachbag. Must join him.
A lot of us use recipes we orginally saw in a cookbook or in the newspaper. I understand that using a beloved recipe that has been tweaked would not violate a copyright.
My friends at Trinity do play an important part in my spiritual life. They are wonderful examples and very inspiring.
At the time the film the Passion of the Christ was released there was a great deal of discussion as to whether it was anti semetic. This chapter reminded me of a conversation I had at the time with a good friend who is Jewish. While I didn't perceive it as so, but rather more on the shoulders of the Romans. I was struck by her discription of the breaking of the communion wafer and the realization that We were responsible.
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