Lent 2 - Friday - "Peace! Be Still!"

Text: Mark 4:35-41 (see below)

Mark 4 and 5 are some of my all time favorite passages of Scripture for they are filled with remarkable teachings, healings, and epiphanies. There is just nothing like them. What a blessing to be reading these accounts during the season of Lent this year.

I was leading an ECW (Episcopal Church Women) retreat in North Carolina ten years ago on the subject of prayer and the spiritual life. Near the end of the retreat I suggested to the participants that we would close our time together by using the Ignatian Method of prayer and use this passage from the fourth chapter of Mark’s Gospel.

Named after Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556), the Ignatian Method of praying makes a sort of virtual experience of the scripture where the leader reads the passage and then asks those participating to create in their mind a short film about what they have seen and heard. You use your imagination to enter into the reading, asking yourself ...

• What do I see and hear? What do I smell, taste, or touch?
• Who are the characters and what's going on with them?
• How do I experience Jesus in the story? What does he look like? What are his actions? How does Jesus respond to others?
• Near the end of the prayer, there is time for the person to speak directly to Jesus telling him what they were thinking and feeling at that moment? Then the leader asks: How does Jesus respond to you?

In the Ignatian Method, you enter into the story so that you can learn more about and participate more fully in the mind, the heart, and the work of Christ. It has been a very useful way for me to pray ever since Margaret Guenther taught me about Ignatius at General Seminary some twenty odd years ago.

When the retreat was finished, I was speaking with some of the organizers of the event when an older Japanese woman came up to me. With tears in her eyes, she said that she would like to speak with me immediately. Sensing that she was in need, we moved to a quiet corner of the parish hall, sat down and she began to tell me of her experience in the prayer.

She had fully engaged in the exercise; was in the boat with the disciples; saw the raging waves; and Jesus asleep in the rear. She described in vivid detail how Jesus arose from his sleep; silenced the storm; and the calm that came over her as the sun reappeared on the horizon. Then, when it was time for her to speak with Jesus directly, she shared with me her experience.

As a child, she had been a witness to the atrocities of the bombing of Hiroshima. She had carried with her for years the pain of that event and the guilt she had for not being able to do more for all those persons who had survived the attack and had suffered so greatly. This precious child of God then looked at me and said, “During the prayer time today I gave my shame and guilt to Jesus and he stilled the storm in my heart.”

Storm on the Sea of Galilee by Rembrandt

I have never forgotten that dear soul, the trust that she placed in me with her life story, and the awesome grace of God that can heal and restore a person to sanity. Where is the storm raging in your life? Do you trust the Master of the Universe enough to turn the tempest over to Him and allow Jesus to say, “Peace! Be still!”? Whatever your current situation is; Jesus can carry it, overcome it, and restore you to sanity of heart, mind and soul.

Love One Another - Brian

A Power Stronger than Every Disappointment

Pope John Paul II

There is one source of power that is stronger than every disappointment, bitterness, or ingrained mistrust, and that is the power of Jesus Christ, who brought forgiveness and reconciliation to the world.

Source: Unknown; written in my Bible near Mark 4:35

Mark 4:35-41

On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’