Lent, Day 10: for he has visited us

For today's reflection I offer first a quotation, then an image, and finally a translation.
 
The quotation comes from Listening to Your Life: Daily Meditations from Frederick Buechner and is the Feb 27^th reading:

    "A wedding. A handshake. A kiss. A coronation. A parade. A dance. A meal. A graduation. A mass. A ritual is the performance of an intuition, the rehearsal of a dream, the playing of a game.

    A sacrament is the breaking through of the sacred into the profane; a ritual is the ceremonial acting out of the profane in order to show forth its sacredness.

    A sacrament is God offering his holiness to men; a ritual is men raising up the holiness of their humanity to God."



The image is of the apse of San Miniato al Monte, a church just across the Arno on a hill overlooking Florence. For over a thousand years, monks there have been daily worshipping God. Last night we made the trip up to worship with them – we worshipped silently, guided by their chants. As we sat in the cold crypt (slightly warmed by two small electric heaters), a floor below the apse, I relished our momentary participation in a thousand years long ritual.



 


Finally, here is my own translation of Luke 1:68-79.


Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel,

for he has visited us,

he has redeemed his people,

he has raised up a horn of salvation for us

        in the house of David, his servant,

(as he spoke long ago through his holy prophets)

salvation from our enemies

and from the hand of all who hate us

to show mercy to our fathers

and to remember his holy covenant,

an oath which he swore to our father Abraham,

to enable us, once delivered from our enemies,

        to serve him,

without fear

            in devotion and righteousness

                in his presence

                    all the days of our lives.
 

And now, child, you yourself will be called

Prophet of the Most High

    for you will go before the Lord

        to prepare his ways,

        to grant knowledge of salvation to his people

            by the pardoning of their sins

        because of God's compassionate heart

            by which the dawn of heaven visits us,

giving light to those who reside in

                darkness and the shadow of death,

            to lead our feet into the way of peace.