PRAYER in CHESTNUT

"Prayer in Chestnut." North Hill, Puyallup, Washington.

PRAYER in WILLOW

"Prayer in Willow." Riverwalk Trail, Puyallup, Washington.

PRAYER in COTTONWOOD

"Prayer in Cottonwood." Riverwalk Trail, Puyallup, Washington.

PRAYER in WALNUT

"Prayer in Walnut." Puyallup River Valley, Puyallup, Washington.

PRAYER in SILVER

"Prayer in Silver." Riverwalk Trail, Puyallup, Washington.

PRAYER in BLUE

"Prayer in Blue." North Hill, Puyallup, Washington.

JEWBELATION 21

21st Anniversary Jewbelation, an American Strong Ale by Shmaltz Brewing Company.

22 ounce bottle served in Jewbelation Sweet 16 glass.

12.1 % abv.

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Jewbelation is one of the beers whose release I look forward to each year. Somehow I missed last year's release. But I stumbled upon a bottle on the shelves and snatched it up.

The pour presents a dark body that is a clear ruby red when held up to the light. There is almost no head, just a thin ring around the glass.

The nose is boozy, earthy, figgy, and dark fruits. This ale even smells thick.

The tongue is likewise boozy, earth, and figgy. There are notes of honey and licorice, peat and tobacco, chocolate and vanilla.

The mouthfeel is relatively thick and slightly oily. The finish is long, with the booze slowing fading and leaving malty, peaty, earthy notes to linger.

Each year they add another ingredient. For the 21st year, there are 10 malts and 11 hops included.  I'm always amazed that with so many different flavors that they produce a balanced beer.

The alcohol by volume is 12.1% but the alcohol sneaks up on the drinker.

Highly enjoyable!

EMMANUEL and WITH-NESS

The Jesse Tree in the Sanctuary of Christ Episcopal Church, Tacoma, Washington.

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This morning I participated in "Come to the Light," the 2018 Advent Quiet Morning at Christ Episcopal Church of Tacoma, Washington. It was a morning of worship with Holy Communion, followed by three priest-led devotions on the O Antiphons with time for mediation, reflection, and prayer after each devotion.

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The third devotion began with some explication on the O Antiphons and their relationship to the song of Mary, the Magnificat of Luke 1. We moved from the general Os to meeting Adonai of the second Antiphon and now to Emmanuel of the seventh and culminating Antiphon. Emmanuel, "God with us," God present, was defined in opposition to the distant capricious Gods of the Roman Empire who reveled in bloodsport and violence. We reflected on how different the Christian expression of God is from the Roman divinities.

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We focused upon the preposition of with. We focused upon the notion of community.

With us. Among us. In Him. For us.

We heard from the poetry of T.S. Eliot in "Choruses from 'The Rock'" and Malcolm Guite from Waiting on the Word.

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We were turned loose for our final time of reflection, meditation, and prayer. I chose to not write. To not take photos. But to simply sit in the Sanctuary and think about what community means to me.

The beauty of the Spirit's work, if I'm actually paying attention, is that community was right there. Even though I didn't speak to anyone once the quiet of Advent Quiet Morning started (except during the "Sharing of the Peace" in worship) I felt a part of those gathered; in our individual concerns we prayed, reflected, and meditated as one entity. I watched a couple of participants who were members of the congregation work in the Sanctuary during the time of quiet reflection. One woman spent time adding evergreen branches and cones to the Advent wreath. (There's that tree again!) Another woman was polishing up candle brass. I thought of the work of similar servants in my own congregation.

I thought of the priests telling us earlier that we yearn for a community. And God in that community, with us.

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As the bell rang for the third and final time, there in one of the corners of the Sanctuary was a Jesse Tree (pictured above). We returned the Chapel, gathered for a final word from the priest, and departed.

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My soul was filled.

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I returned to the Sanctuary at the conclusion in order to take the above photograph. Then departed home in peace.

BIBLIA PAUPERUM and the BURNING BUSH

Meditation/study on the O Antiphons in the Library of Christ Episcopal Church, Tacoma, Washington.

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This morning I participated in "Come to the Light," the 2018 Advent Quiet Morning at Christ Episcopal Church of Tacoma, Washington. It was a morning of worship with Holy Communion, followed by three priest-led devotions on the O Antiphons with time for mediation, reflection, and prayer after each devotion.

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The second devotion was on one of the pages of the Biblia Pauperum (Bible of the Poor). The central image was of the manger of the Nativity, with Moses encountering God/Christ speaking from the burning bush on the left and priests lifting up prayers to God via incense on the right. We heard of O Adonai. We learned of the Orthodox Church believing unburnt bush as a symbol of the Theotokos, Mary, the mother of God. We heard lines of poetry from (Saint) Emily Dickinson* and Malcolm Guite.

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*The designation of Emily as saint drew uncharacteristic laughter, loud and long, from those of us gathered, who were otherwise mostly silent.

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The burning bush of Exodus 3 and 4 reminded me of the words we heard earlier in the mornings worship from Isaiah 41:19-20—where God places "in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive" and sets "in the desert the cypress, the plane and the pine together." With premonitions/echoes of the tree of the Cross (since the God of all time has collapsed time within God) as well as the Jesse Tree I would discover later in the morning.

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I headed off to the church's Library for a number of reasons. First, I wanted to look up a couple of passages in a Bible. Second, we were told that the Library was much warmer than some of the other spaces. Third, I needed to be in a different space than the Sanctuary since I knew I would likely be returning to it later.

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I looked up Bible passages. I peeked through a couple of other books. I meditated upon the woody and the vegetal: burning bushes, trees, berries and cones, life locked within these seed forms, full trees yet to be realized. And, if I thought of Rilke during the first session, Goethe and his The Metamorphosis of Plants was near of mind.

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The second ringing of the bell called me back from reflection and back to the Chapel.

MEDITATION on O

"Meditation on 'O'" by Troy's Work Table. Sanctuary of Christ Episcopal Church, Tacoma, Washington.

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This morning I participated in "Come to the Light," the 2018 Advent Quiet Morning at Christ Episcopal Church of Tacoma, Washington. It was a morning of worship with Holy Communion, followed by three priest-led devotions on the O Antiphons with time for mediation, reflection, and prayer after each devotion.

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I so needed this. Right now. This morning.

It was a time and place of quiet and stillness. A time of poetry and prayer. A place of counterculture carved out in the midst of capitalism and chaos.

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The first devotion was on the letter "O" as both exclamation and as simple letter. It was about the O of yearning. The notion expressed in the German term Sehnsucht. The knowledge that we are created with the capacity to yearn and that we yearn for communion with God, the divine, our Creator.

In the midst of distractions, we seek, yearn, long. We engage in a refusal of manufacture happiness.

The first devotion ended in a lectio divina reading of a poem from Malcolm Guite's book Waiting on the Word: A Poem a Day for Advent, Christmas, Epiphany.

"O Memory of time, reminding me, / My Ground of Being, always grounding me / ... / Come to me now, disguised as everything."

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I spent the time after the first devotions taking photographs of Os and circles I found in the Sanctuary. They were present in the racking of overhead lights, in stained glass windows, in offering plates, in loaves of communion bread. I also wrote poems based upon the notion of O, the antiphons, the yearning of Sehnsucht, the death of pets. Rilke's Duino Elegies were never far from my thoughts.

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For me, it was a time of devotion and meditation upon image.

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Then the priest arrived and rang the bell calling us back to the Chapel.