Two Weeks

For those of you unfamiliar with the movie, the title of this post is an allusion to "The Money Pit." Watch the movie. In all honesty, the title has little or nothing to do with the content, except that now we're in Week 2 of Vision. Ah, Vision.

I'm writing after our most marathonesque of days: up at 7:30 for 8:30 call, morning prayer, presentations, Mass, lunch, rehearsal, blah blah blah twohourReconciliationservice. Yes: after being awakened at the ass-crack of dawn, and pretty much singing/talking all day, we close the evening with two hours of singing. It wouldn't be so bad if I didn't love pretty much every minute of it.

That's right: liturgical music freak that I am, I adore two hours of things like "From the Depths," "Down to the River to Pray" and "Jesus the Lord." I even loved "Senor Hazme," despite the fact that I can't keep a straight face since Blair told me about the complexities of the base part. You'll have to ask him to explain it.

The only problem is that now my voice is crapping out. Again. It's just a fact of life that, in a retreat requiring this much singing and then personal reflection/sharing (since the musicians are part of small groups now) and general chatting because we like the people with whom we work, the voice becomes a nonrenewable resource. Thank God for Tweak Week!

That said, I've been up way too long, and need to get to bed so I can sleep a li'l bit. I've got some peeps with whome Ii've made breakfast plans, and I'd just as soon not sleep through them. I leave you with some revelations and realizations thusfar from Week 2.

Reconciliation and the clip of "The Mission":
Relieve a man of his burdens before he is ready to release it and he will fall on his face, then adding shame to his guilt. This is why, despite the fact that he forgives us always and invites us, through confession, to give over our burdens of guilt, he will not take it from us before we are ready to let it go. Always, always, the choice is ours.
A perfect image to capture that idea is shown in the film: Father Gabriel helps Mendoza himself climb the enormous falls, then sits beside him with a look of pain and love as Mendoza drags his net full of armor up after himself. I think this must be how God looks when he sees how we refuse to let others--or him--forgive us, and wallow in our sadness and guilt.

Poem for today: still in the roughest of stages. Inspired slightly by SCDubs.

he sits on a table beside a table
cradles his guitar like a child
fingers tease the song
teach it to walk
let it rise and fall
tumble and soar

this is holy ground
we are standing on holy ground
for the lord is present
and where he is is holy

I am afraid of dying young
and he holds me like a guitar
tricking notes from my spine
rise tremble sing fall



Song of the evening: "Grand Theft Autumn" by Fall Out Boy