Finding our Way (or, being found by it)
“For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”
Contemporary Tanzanian artist Thobias Minzi paints Christ healing the Blind (2010). The scene is suitably abstract: the light refracts on the newly-opened eyes that has no framework for sight. A riot of color and light radiate into the mind and heart as body and soul experience for the first time the miracle of sight: processing new information, new sensations — a crowded, confusing, incomprehensible landscape; a new way of perceiving, indeed, a new way of being in the world.
When anything is exposed by the light, it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light.
— The Apostle Paul (Eph 5:13-14)
Fourth Sunday of Lent (Laetare Sunday)
Texts for this Week
Prayer
Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us, and we in him; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Restore us again
Contemporary liturgical folk artist Paul Zach sings his rich Lenten ballad, “Restore Us Again” in the empty sanctuary space of Christ Episcopal Church in Charlottesville, VA, where he serves as Music Minister. There’s a more produced version of the piece on his 2018 album, “God is the Friend of Silence” with some lovely vocal harmonies by Liz Vice, and some additional background strings as the chorus repeats, but the 2020-vibe hollowness of the empty sanctuary fits the Lenten spirit quite appropriately.
