Givens Creative

Life at the intersection of faith, nature, history and art

Scripture

Four offerings for your Good Friday

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Greetings, friends and readers. Today I offer you four resources for prayer and reflection on this Good Friday.

The first is the conclusion of my seven-part video series on the Seven Last Words of Jesus. If you missed any of them, they are all available here on my blog, of course. Today’s message is from the gospel of Luke and gives us Jesus’ last words to his father at the very moment of his death.

“Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.” Luke 23: 44-46

Next up is a short poem and image for reflection, another in the daily series I have been offering during this time of the pandemic.

Below is a new music video for an older song, composed back in 2002 with my friend and collaborator, Phil Cooper, “Consider the Nails.”

Finally, if you’re available this afternoon at 3 p.m. (Central Time), I will be presenting “Crossroads: Stations of the Cross for a Time of Change” on Facebook Live from the Marianist Retreat and Conference Center, just outside of St. Louis. If you want to join in and pray with us live (or view it afterwards at your leisure), you can find the Center’s Facebook page here:

https://www.facebook.com/retreatschangelives/

Blessed Triduum and a Happy Easter to you all!

Steve

The Seven Last Words: I Thirst

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The Seven Last Words, Day 5: Today, we see Jesus experiencing a common and most human need. He is thirsty.

“I thirst.” John 19:28-29

Another thought for the day: Count your blessings. They remain.

Advent is Our Annual Wake-Up Call 


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“Therefore, stay awake! For you do not know on which day your Lord will come.” Matthew 24:42

Here we are once again on the first Sunday of Advent, once again just weeks away from the celebration of the great solemnity of Christmas. Here we are once again entering into a period of preparation for the graces to be received as we contemplate what it means to have a God who is willing to come be on our level, to be Emmanuel and be with us. We are no longer in ordinary time, and it’s clear in today’s readings that something extraordinary is on the horizon.

But it’s also a bit strange, it seems on the surface, listening to Jesus in today’s Gospel reading talk and warn about the end of days just as we begin Advent, just as we begin to focus on those ancient events leading up to his miraculous and extraordinary birth in a manger in Bethlehem. What are we doing here — looking back to the cataclysm of Noah’s great destructive flood and forward to the day judgement?

It all seems so out of place in light of our modern celebration and understanding of Advent and Christmas, which has reduced Advent and Christmas in so many ways into a very different kind of “holiday season” that has become, for so many, nothing more than a race to Christmas day. And today the starting pistol has been fired. 

And, in fact, there is so much joy to be found in the celebration of Christmas morning as it has come to be defined by western culture and traditions. There is joy in Santa and gift-giving and gathering friends and family for magnificent or simple meals.

But there is more. Today we are asked to ponder a sleigh-load of big ideas at the same time: Jesus was born. Jesus lived and was crucified and rose from the dead. Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead. This is not just the beginning of a holiday season. This is the beginning of a great and ongoing story that has the power to change us forever.

Advent is not just a time of preparing for the celebration of Christmas. Advent is a time for preparing ourselves for a new way of living and loving.

“Come Lord Jesus. Come.”

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