Ramadan Post Nine: Pain
The Scripture:
When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my delight, for I bear you name, O Lord God Almighty. I never sat in the company of revelors, never made merry with them; I sat alone because your hand was on me and you had filled me with indignation. Why is my pain unending and my wound grevious and incurable? Will you be to me like a deceptive brook, like a spring that fails? Therefore this is what the Lord says, “If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless words, you will be my spokesman.”
Jeremiah 15:16-19a
Phrases that arose during lectio:
I sat alone…Why is my pain unending and my wound grevious and incurable? ..will you be to me like a spring that fails?…
Some thoughts:
This is the most significant time I’ve had with my Ramadan practice. This passage was assigned by the lectionary to a day in which I was racked by a migraine. It was a two-week period of daily pain. The images fell under my fingertips quickly, just by flipping a few pages of a magazine. The words “healing” in the sky are made out of pictures of the brain. The sign language “pain” was from a stop smoking add. The image of the brain and the butterfly were from a website. I didn’t like how bright the paper was, so I dyed it by cracking open one of my medicine tablets that I hate taking because it has a bad taste. (I take 18 pills a day– supplements and medicines). All in all I think it captures my health situation (or lack thereof) and when I made this collage it felt solid, like I’d really captured my reality.
I have been fascinated with the Ramadan posts. Thank you for posting them and sharing them. Where, may I ask, did you get the lectionary for the Ramadan? Your creativity is amazing and the artwork represented with each day is fabulous. Once again, thank you for this sharing. I’ve not really ever thought about Ramadan before now.
This posting is deep. The image and your words literally conjure up pain and the sense of being in a wasteland. In some ways, a hospital room sanctified by pain and suffering. Your own.
I want to reach out to you and intervene, but this is so holy. It’s a holy thing.
I wanted to write, but noted no one else had. How do you speak to another person’s suffering? Fear and reverence, seems to be the proper response. I offer my humble, but truthful response. It’s connected to Communion. The scripture says:
But let each person examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink this cup.
For she that eateh and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to herself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For the cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep.
Let us all examine ourselves as we participate in his life and his body. The elements are transformed into the body of Christ, moreso the living organism he indwells
Bostic,
Are you suggesting that I have a chronic illness because I’m taking communion unworthily?
Rachelle
Monica,
I decided to “fast” time for Ramadan in order to sink deeper into my holy book, the Bible, as my Islamic acquaintances spent time honoring their holy book, the Koran.
The lectionary I’m following is from Robert Webber’s excellent Encyclopedia of Christian Worship: The Christian Year … but I’m sure it’s just a standard Year A/B/C/ lectionary, which you should be able to find on line by googling “lectionary” or “Anglican Lectionary.”
Ramadan is long over, but I’m continuing on the practice. Some days I do lectio divina on the passage but not a collage. My goal is to do 30 collages for the 30 days of Ramadan. I’m guessing it will take me the better part of a year!
Rachelle
The communion is too simplistic. It’s deeper than that and you are more creative than that, no? Let’s thing about the holy common and unworthiness in broader terms. Again, the scripture says:
Many are sick, weak, and some sleep, because they have not properly discerned the body of Christ. Do you think Paul was writing about bread?
Part of that didn’t come out too clearly.
I meant to write:
Let’s think about holy communion, discernment, and unworthiness in much more complicated ways (or broader terms). Are you feeling that?
http://www.monkfish-abbey.org/blog/20051019/dinner-conversation-with-my-non-christian-but-surprisingly-jesus-like-friends-who-i-adore/
Well Bostic, given that I’ve had these migraines since I was about 15 (off and on) and given that they were the WORST when I was pastoring at a very straight-and-narrow traditional church, I’m gonna go with the idea that God is NOT punishing me because I’m not towing the line as to how YOU think I should be practicing my faith.
cheers,
Rachelle
[…] The Ramadan Collection one, two, three, four,, five, six, seven, eight […]
[…] I don’t know why I always leap to the idea of a book, when clearly articles and essays are my most natural length. (I just get so distracted by sparkly things, and without a real deadline I skip from project to project. This is not a boon to my agent.) At any rate, maybe an article would be more reasonable here….maybe something for The Sun. I have a couple little bits that might turn into something. This one for instance, or this artsy bit here, or here. Or maybe these more practical stories. And then there is what I wrote this morning, based on an image that came to me while I was doing Shavasana on the living room floor: […]