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    Benedictions: 26 Reflections
    Benedictions: 26 Reflections
    Benedictions: 26 Reflections
    Ebook96 pages4 hours

    Benedictions: 26 Reflections

    By Julie K. Aageson

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    Benedictions is about the presence of the sacred in ordinary things: the ground beneath our feet, the ways we bless each other, loss and grief, the making of our homes, even doubt and darkness. In the everyday experiences described here, God's presence is palpable and real. "Cleave the wood and I am there," says Isaiah in the apocryphal gospel of Thomas. "Lift up the stone and you will find me there." These benedictions--literally good words, blessings, tastes of God--remind readers to live life with feeling and passion and art, to pay attention to the holiness of the commonplace. Each reflection opens a door inviting the reader into an experience they might understand as an encounter with God, and an exploration of the many meanings of the sacred. Benedictions is also a personal collection about places and people, seasons of life, and seasons of experience that convey much more than the ordinary. A statement and questions for further conversation and discussion follow each reflection. Hopefully, readers will discover their own benedictions here in the wonder, grace, and mystery of God's presence in daily life.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWipf and Stock
    Release dateMar 18, 2016
    ISBN9781498279604
    Benedictions: 26 Reflections
    Author

    Julie K. Aageson

    Julie K. Aageson has served as a resource specialist and writer for the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. For a decade, she wrote a monthly column for the ELCA magazine, Gather. She has written numerous articles and stories for a variety of religious periodicals. She is author of Benedictions: 26 Reflections (Wipf and Stock, 2016) and Holy Ground: An Alphabet of Prayer(Cascade, 2018). She is a co-author of One Hope: Re-Membering the Body of Christ (2015), which was written to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.

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      Book preview

      Benedictions - Julie K. Aageson

      9781498279598.kindle.jpg

      Benedictions

      26 Reflections

      Julie K. Aageson

      9303.png

      Benedictions

      26

      Reflections

      Copyright ©

      2016

      Julie K. Aageson. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers,

      199

      W.

      8

      th Ave., Suite

      3

      , Eugene, OR

      97401

      .

      Wipf & Stock

      An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

      199

      W.

      8

      th Ave., Suite

      3

      Eugene, OR

      97401

      www.wipfandstock.com

      paperback isbn 13: 978-1-4982-7959-8

      hardcover isbn 13: 978-1-4982-7961-1

      ebook isbn 13: 978-1-4982-7960-4

      Manufactured in the U.S.A.

      With much love and gratitude for Jim

      whose steady presence and patient partnership

      continue to be lifelong benedictions.

      Table of Contents

      Permissions

      Overview

      Introduction

      Chapter 1: Holy Ground

      Chapter 2: Home

      Chapter 3: Saint Andrew’s Church

      Chapter 4: Bread of Life

      Chapter 5: Seeing through a Mirror Dimly

      Chapter 6: Discussion

      Chapter 7: Beauty as Benediction

      Chapter 8: Quotidian Mercies

      Chapter 9: Liturgy

      Chapter 10: Apple Trees

      Chapter 11: Waiting

      Chapter 12: Real Life

      Chapter 13: Practicing Resurrection

      Chapter 14: Helpers

      Chapter 15: God Is Here

      Chapter 16: Wisdom Stories

      Chapter 17: Music

      Chapter 18: Tables

      Chapter 19: More!

      Chapter 20: Learning to Be We

      Chapter 21: God Be with You

      Chapter 22: Singers of Life

      Chapter 23: Hunger and Thirst

      Chapter 24: Sunday Benedictions

      Chapter 25: Doubt and Darkness

      Chapter 26: Good Company

      Bibliography

      Permissions

      1 Holy Ground, p. 4. Poem Holy Ground by Veronica Koperski. Used with permission of the author and of The Liturgical Conference. First published in Liturgy 9.3 (1991) 63.

      9 Liturgy, p. 29. Use of the line from Now the feast and celebration, all of creation sings for joy. Haugen, Now the Feast, 1990, GIA. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

      12 Real Life, p. 38. Quote by Deborah K. Cronin in Holy Ground: Celtic Christian Spirituality. Used with permission.

      17 Music, p. 53. For the Beauty of the Earth. Text by Folliott S. Pierpoint. This is in the public domain.

      17 Music, p. 54. Go, My Children, with My Blessing. Text by Jaroslav Vajda. St. Louis, CPH, 1983. Used with permission.

      17 Music, p. 54. Shepherd Me, O God. Text by Marty Haugen. Based on Psalm 23. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

      20 Learning to be We, p. 62. As the Grains of Wheat. Text from Didache, 2nd century; Marty Haugen. GIA, 1990. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

      20 Learning to be We, p. 64. One Bread, One Body. Text by John B. Foley. OCP, 1978. All rights reserved. Used with permission.

      22 Singers of Life, p. 68. Loren Eiseley, The Immense Journey. Random House, 1956. I found it in Creative Brooding by Robert Raines. New York: Macmillan, 1967. Used with permission. 1946.

      23 Hunger and Thirst, p. 72. John Shea, Stories of Faith. Quote used with permission of the author and of Father Gregory Pierce, editor, president, and publisher of ACTA.

      Overview

      Benedictions is a collection of reflections about the presence of the sacred in ordinary things. In the everyday experiences described here, God’s presence is palpable, tangible, real. Cleave the wood and I am there, says Isaiah in the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas . Lift up the stone, and you will find me there. These benedictions—literally good words, blessings, tastes of God—remind readers to live life with feeling and passion and art, paying attention to the holiness of the commonplace: the ground beneath our feet, the ways we bless each other, loss and grief and the making of our homes, or in the words of Gertrud Mueller Nelson, the paper scraps, sticks and rags and soups, sunrises and compost piles, the stuff of which we spin an atmosphere for family, neighbors, and friends, without which there is no taste of God.

      Many of us spend a lifetime looking for God’s face. The introduction to Benedictions sets the stage for my own search by describing the place of my childhood and how it shaped my first experiences of God’s presence. In the reflections that follow, I write about places and people, seasons of life and seasons of experience that show readers God’s face in the journey that is life. There is a vastness, a spaciousness about the meanings of God that I sensed even as a young child experiencing the daily ebbing and flooding of the tides and the nightly wonders of the universe. My hope is that readers will discover their own benedictions here in the wonder and mystery of God’s holy presence.

      Introduction

      The object of life is to live it with feeling and passion and art—minutely—because without the paper scraps, the sticks and rags and soups, without sunrises or compost piles, without babies and loves, without spinning an atmosphere for family, neighbors, and friends, there is no taste of God.¹

      At the topmost corner of the western United States, a beautifully unspoiled chain of islands lie jewel-like between the southern tip of Canada’s Vancouver Island and the ragged coastline of the US mainland. More than two hundred of these islands form a long archipelago leading from the northern end of Puget Sound out into the straits of Rosario, Haro, and Georgia. Through the sometimes narrow and circuitous channels, waterways and straits that separate the mostly high-cliffed, tree-covered islands, saltwater tides ebb and flood. In their wake, shell-strewn beaches lie crisscrossed with endless varieties of saltwater creatures and odd assortments of driftwood and logs washed clean several times each day by the clockwork regularity of tides.

      I spent my childhood on one of these small islands, tucked between the majestic peaks of the Cascade Mountains on the mainland and the ragtag assortment of adjacent islands scattered across the sound. Our world was framed by the geography that defines this extraordinarily beautiful area of the Pacific Northwest. The names of the islands closest to us—Orcas, Cypress, Sinclair, Eliza, Vendovi, Samish, Jack—roll off my tongue like old familiar friends. Great ships and barges, tankers and ferries plied the waterways and channels between the islands, bringing oil to inland refineries and—from the vantage of childhood anyway—mysterious and exotic goods from foreign ports. In the fog-shrouded channels, the deep resonance of ship horns and sharp whistles and buoy bells clanging in the mist signaled faraway places and the

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