Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Is daily chapel too much or not enough?

Always an exotic, fresh flower arrangement, many with distinct symbolism. Not sure what the symbolism of this one is, but we're in the "liturgical growing" season right now, so I'm guessing... bloom and grow?! And swirl and dance in the Spirit?!


Beauty in the leaves, to and from chapel. This butterfly was as big as my hand.

Evening Prayer.
One of the things that's different for me in my new job at the seminary is the chance to attend daily chapel.  DAILY chapel?  Yup, and I'm enjoying it.  Full disclosure -- 30 years ago when I was in seminary myself, I did NOT attend daily chapel!  I thought that was for über-religious  and/or those students who wanted to impress their worship professors.

Now, it's a break in my day... it's a chance to get out of my office and see the community. It's a chance to sing a familiar hymn with old, deeply poetic words, or hear a new song sung.

It's almost always a chance to hear the Word. And to pray.

Sometimes the short homilies are in English and sometimes they're in Chinese.  And sometimes they're in English but it might as well be in Chinese (ha, something my former parishioners may have experienced from time to time) but there are Bibles available, and if the translation on the headphones isn't so great, then it's a few extra moments to look at the Biblical texts for the week (we follow a fairly standard liturgical lectionary).

It's beautiful!

I go to the day chapels at ten o'clock.  There's also evening chapel at five-thirty, but I just glance in as I start the 15 minute "descent" down the mountain to our home.  Maybe in another 30 years I'll be attending evening chapel too.

I was glad when they said to me, 
"Let us go to the house of the LORD."
 -- Psalm 122:1

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