Dear Parishioners,

I think it was a week ago that Gay R.  called me and told me that it would be a different Holy Week for the both of us.   And by that she meant that neither of us would be in the parish and doing what has been usual for many years during Holy Week.   I think she mentioned that for 40 years she has been preparing music for Holy Week.   

You might think that I would look forward to the break but that doesn't seem to be the case.   Yes I can sit there and participate as part of the congregation but a number of things seem to be off.   I think that much of it has to do with wanting to pray with you and by that I mean a specific group.   Praying with my sisters parishioners just is not the same as praying with the St. Mary of Shaw group.   

I guess we get used to each other and are able to put up with some of the unusual qualities that we each have - you with me and I with you.   I think that Jesus certainly was conscious of the different personalities present at the last supper and still wanted to give his full self when it came to laying down his life for them even if they were at times very painful.   

I wish I could be there and when this leg can bend properly I will move my entire body in your direction.   I'm reminded of what Jesus said about cutting off what is sinful or a hinderance, but then I would have still another healing problem that would take time to solve.

No matter what the world says, Jesus has RISEN 

Fellow Faith Travelers, 

Yesterday, Thursday, Judy and I visited my surgery doctor.   Of course, an x-ray was taken and he was happy with how straight my ligament looked.    He complimented me on being a good boy.   I guess that some people take their brace off at night and other times and then the ligament ends up being wavy and that tells the doctor the patient has not been obedient.   I had never thought that my spirituality could be measured by an x-ray.    

I asked about coming back to Oregon to do my therapy.   He said it could happen and then he went on to say what would happen if I stayed here.   In listening to his explanation, I started to think about how much simpler it would be to stay here where things are already in place with no new doctor, no changes in the routine of steps, food, my sister’s help, and not having 4 or 5 people attempting to help me get things done.   So, I’m staying here and if I heard the doctor correctly I should be able to be home at least by the middle of May.    

Once I start with the official therapy to stretch the ligament it is about a four week process first at 30%, 60%, 90% and then 100%.    I hope to begin this next week if Judy can make contact today with some of the closer places.    

When walking, with weight bearing on my leg, I’m to have the brace locked into a straight position.   When seated, I’m to have the brace in a 30% position and be moving the leg back and forth to help the ligament get used to some movement.   So, after our appointment I spent 15 minutes attempting to move the two little red buttons on each side of my brace to allow for the 30% movement.    I spent 15 minutes attempting to do this.   I had seen the doctor do it and it looked so easy.     My brother in law Art, in attempting to help almost blew a blood vessel in his neck.   He finally spent time on u tube seeing how this brace worked and it looked easy as they moved the brace into different angles.    After Judy tried and she had seen the doctor do it I call the doctor’s office back and asked for help.   When the doctor returned the call he simply said to be sure there was no tension and it should work and it did.    

It is interesting that I have survived this long in our world.    

And the Exodus continues, Fr. Dick (obviously not in a straight line) 

I am being a bit of a pain in that I'm continuing with last weeks message so please bear with me.   I'm had a difficult week in that my brother-in-law shared his cold with me.   My nose was running so much that I finally quit using tissues and just went with a rough towel where I didn't have to worry about where the last nose blow took place.   I had plenty of space to use and it was needed.   But during that time I was not giving God any praise but mostly just hoping that my head would still be attached come the next day.   I kept figuring that my body would finally catch up with the affliction and correct things.   

With that being said I ask you to listen to ps. 43 and how the Prayer, the writer is thinking.   "All this happened to us, but not because we had forgotten you.   We were not disloyal to your covenant:  our hearts did not turn away; our steps did not wander from your path; and YET you brought us low, with horrors all about us.   Awake, Lord, why do you sleep.

Was I away from the Lord during my cold?   I was absent in some ways but it wasn't a conscious or deliberate decision to go and worship another being.   No, it was more of a lack of connection and disconnect with not only God but with much of life.   

It would seem that we have yet to understand how to both live life and at the same time have our God be so present to the life we are living that there little separation between the two.   How can we bring God into all that is taking place whether it is a joyous thing or a painful event?   Most of us do not make a decision to leave God out of things.   It is just we do not decide to include God in what is taking place.   We must not believe or think that God has any interest in how to cook or make some decisions.   

The Exodus continues, Fr. Dick

One of the things that I keep returning to are the constant distance between what God has to say about his people (us) and what his followers are asking of God.   I am constantly hearing in the psalms the distance between what God is asking them to do and how the people think they are responding to God.   

Ps. 95 is one of those that I'm praying each day and we are asked to listen to the voice of the Lord.   Of course, the implication is that we are not listening as well as we should be listening.    Do not grow stubborn, as your fathers did in the wilderness, they challenged me and provoked me, although they had seen all of my works.   Forty years I endured that generation----they shall not enter into my rest or they shall not enter the promised land.   

Yes. these are God's people, but you can see that here is a parent that is not exactly seeing the best response from those who have promised to be faithful.   

And of course their response to the Lord was along the lines of why does the Lord not see how well we are being obedient.   Why does the Lord allow these things to happen to us when we are being so faithful?   The psalms are constantly asking God to be faithful to the promises that have been given making the assumption that what God has asked is being fully fulfilled.   

Faithfulness is asked by both, and both believe they are giving the best to this covenant.   I look at how both sides are thinking and I try not to apply any thoughts to my personal response as that would add a level of reality that is painful.  

I hope to see you soon,   Fr. Dick (who)

Fellow Faith Travelers,
Judy and I have been learning how to play cribbage.  The first time we were using the whole deck but then I watched some videos and we corrected a few things.  I’m sure that we are not getting all of the count correct but we are getting closer.    I have always had trouble with new rules of the game appearing.   Even when playing bridge there tends to be someone who knows the game differently than I do and tells me what I’ve just misunderstood.

You know what would be a real difficult thing to absorb would be if you or I get to heaven and one of the heavenly authorities would say, “I’m sorry but you have got the rules wrong so a good share of what you have been doing has put you on the wrong track and so there is a great deal that you have accepted that is incorrect.
Probably the area that I would most want to be correct about would have to do with patience.   This patience thing doesn’t seem to be the same thing that I believed before this forced patience was inflicted on me.   I’m doing okay but I certainly wish this all was over.
The weather is much better here than what you are experiencing.   We are now having sunny days and in the 70’s each day and that means that I can spend more time on the porch and let the sun warm my body.   Thank you Lord.

So long for now, I have to watch my leg some more,
And the Exodus continues, Fr. Dick (obviously not in a straight line)

Fellow Faith Travelers,

Yesterday was another day of waiting during a long series of waiting experiences.   As you know Lent is waiting experience.   It took 40 minutes to get to the doctor’s office and we took our placed in the waiting room.   I think all waiting rooms are designed by some third grader who was asked to design a sterile room.   I’m thinking that you could go into a dentist, or eye doctor, or orthopedic doctor and you wouldn’t be able to tell the difference. 

They all look the same and the length of stay is generally 30 minutes.
In sitting sort of in the back seat of the car and then with no support for my leg in the waiting room my leg was on high alert.   If this is orthopedic place, why not have ortho chairs so that I had a place to rest my leg like an old wheel-chair.   Of course, it will stick out into a travel path.   And if you have an arm injury what about having some kind of thing for an arm to rest on that could go up and down.   And perhaps some kind of leaning booth that you could lean into or away from that would take a share of one’s weight.   Struct you stuff.
We talk a considerable amount about treating others like we would treat Jesus.   I have not been abused and have receive excellent care but most of the time I would settle for being treated like an animal at the vets.    There you get petted and they talk to you.   They put me into an exam room with chairs with no arms and then expect me to go into another room for ex-rays.   No arms to help me up with only one leg doing the lifting.   Who does that?    We have a long way to go before Jesus will notice.

Enjoy the snow and throw a snowball at Jesus,
And the Exodus continues, Fr. Dick (obviously not in a straight line)

Fellow Faith Travelers,
This morning during my prayer I came across this short little prayer and for some reason I stopped and why I stopped I don’t know.    I think because for some reason the prayer seemed strange.   It’s often safer to not notice the prayer we are asked to make.  This is the prayer.   “Lord, shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.”

In taking some time with this prayer, it sort of forced me to come up with some names or at least some people located somewhere.   So, who are these people who are dwelling in the shadow of death.   Well, there is Rev. Putin, my cousin the thief, and I guess a whole lot of folks in our world who are not interested in hearing about Jesus.   Would it include those who think football is more important that Jesus on a particular day or hour?  That is a close call and we will have to get someone holier than myself to answer that question.

What I did notice is that the prayer didn’t apply to me.   It was a prayer that looked outward toward some heathen folks away from me.   I, myself, am not living in the shadow of death and have no need to have the Lord shine his face on me to either keep me from the shadow of death or keep me from going in that direction.   I guess, no Pharisee lives here.

 “I find myself under the apple tree----I never thought it could be me,----- HOW did I get here???? Under THIS Apple Tree?”

And the Exodus continues, Fr. Dick (obviously not in a straight line)

Fellow Faith Travelers,

Yesterday in the Office of Readings we had something on Perfection by Diadochus of Photice (I know, one of your favorites) who was suggesting self-abasement as a good way to go in the spiritual life.   If you were to go for spiritual direction or to some kind of counseling and you talked about degrading yourself they would attempt to move you in some other direction.   This is not one of the common ways of moving forward in the spiritual life today.

I remember when I was first ordained we had a priest on the coast who would not go to bed without having a full tank of gas in his car.   He had an inordinate fear of our country being attacked and he needed to be able to have enough gas to get to Idaho where he would be safe.   I knew of no other person with this fear and there were considerable comments from other priests about whether we had enough gas in our car or not.   But this priest was normal in all other ways that I knew of but this one area.

You know in order to be a saint you don’t need to be normal.   We have some saints who had rather unusual spiritual practices and still our Church has declared them to among the Blessed.   In todays world it might be a more difficult to have strange spiritual habits because we have more emphasis on communal habits that bring us together and so being an outlaw would not be one of the enticing spiritual habits noticed by the Church.

Recently someone called to my attention that some of my verbiage and style of living were not exactly what they should be.   Oh, what do you do with that?   And certainly, part of the difficulty is that my straight forward sister agrees with this assessment.    But I want you to know that I have been working hard to develop a persona that will put some of you off so that I will not have to deal with so much work.   There you go, my personal rationalization for not changing something that would require some hard work.   Anyway, I am working on my Sacred Story and it may not come out as you hope it might.   And I will try and not tell you how yours should come out.   Only listen to me a little bit.

And the Exodus continues, Fr. Dick

Fellow Faith Travelers,
Our Gospel this weekend seems to place considerable attention on the gifts that the three visitors brought to the child Jesus.   I was attempting to understand this effort and I started to think of what we call today destination weddings.   You are invited to attend which means I think (not really understanding much of this) that first you need to purchase an airline ticket that cost you what?   At least $400 and then a couple of nights in a hotel along with some meals.   With that outlay the question in my mind asks why I should be buying a gift on top of that huge effort that has already been spent.   Shouldn’t the wedding couple make a large contribution to my checkbook for being so foolish as to ask everyone to attend their event so far from home?   And these wedding generally have no connection to the Lord so I probably should even bring them up.

We do not have any mention in our Gospel about the place from where our travelers started or how long they have been in transit in order to attend to the child Jesus.   It seems that they show up and stay for a few hours and then wave goodbye and are on their way as if it were just a matter of accomplishing a task and it is all over.

Our ancestors on leaving Egypt were 40 years wondering around in the desert and then finally make it to their destination and maybe the only gift that they were bringing to the Promised Land was all the effort of getting there along with the instructions of the Lord during that time.

As a Church community we have not spent effort of helping everyone to think of bringing their weekly efforts to the Sunday Mass as an offering to the Lord.   We have spent time reflecting and pushing for financial contributions and that has probably deflected us from understanding any notion of being on pilgrimage to the Lord and how that constant effort is part of our personal salvation history.   The new Exodus is taking place with ourselves as present-day participants and we are heading to the eternal Promised Land.

Fr. Dick Rossman

Third Sunday of Advent
Fellow Faith Travelers,
I do not have a good feel for how the season of Advent and even Lent came to pass in its present form that we are using within our church year.   I do know that it has taken a period of time for the length to gradually be added to the celebration of both Christmas and Easter.   I’m sure it was the thought that these two important celebrations were so important that we should be taking more than on day to celebrate them and therefore we have had the gradual lengthening of the time we use to give those days their proper attention.
Our Jewish ancestors may not have been any better at waiting than we are but they waited a considerable period of time for Jesus, the Messiah to come.   We set aside four weeks of waiting for Christmas which is not exactly like waiting for a thousand years for someone to appear.   A question I have is to ask if we are waiting at all.   What does “waiting” look like and how would someone outside of our household notice in some way that waiting is taking place in our lives or within our house.   Does have lights up outside the house signify that waiting is taking place?   In talking to ourselves what might we self-communicate about what waiting has left us panting or in some way be constantly be looking for clues and signs that in the next few moments something important will be happening.
I remember as the year 2000 approached I was one of the foolish people who thought that the computers would all collapse and we would be not starting over as humble cavemen but I did think that computers were not as smart as we thought they were.   I was wrong, they are smarter than I thought but it is that sort of expectation of readiness does not seem to be all that present in our lives about how we are preparing and looking forward to Jesus being inserted into our lives that we are missing.
In fact, I would say that we are opposed to most kinds of waiting.   We do not want to wait in a grocery checkout line, or in a traffic jam.   In a restaurant it is at times okay to wait for our good meal to come if we have something in our hand or if we are having a good conversation.   But in general waiting is not considered a spiritual exercise but would be more of a waste of our precious time.    It would seem that where we are really waiting takes place when we have a serious doctors report after a scan has taken place and it is weeks before we are able to have our precious time with the doctor.
And maybe our God mulling and wondering if and when you and I will catch on to any or a few of the clues would be the best definition of waiting.
Kingdom come, here we come, but let’s not break any records,

Fr. Dick Rossman