Life at Holy Cross Vol. 2
I'm thankful
I want to take a moment to reflect on how thankful I am for my church for one specific reason. There are so many reasons I could list but today there's one on my mind in particular. Holy Cross is filled with artists and creative people. It's pretty common to see one of us working on a project during Bible study or church. One of my friends sketches. Another one knits during the sermon. I love to take notes so that I can save them for later and either reflect on them or create a written piece of my own. I've also gotten a little more adventurous during the service with my photo taking. I try to be sneaky, but of course I'm always noticed. This Sunday I had ventured into the balcony during the procession and after the service someone came up to me and said they couldn't wait to see the photos I got. I'm thankful for that. I know that I'm simply trying to preserve memories and moments at Holy Cross and I think everyone else can see that too. I'm thankful that it's a space for people to participate in their own ways.
Bible study
There's another thing that Holy Cross has a lot of- pastors.
Since St. Louis is home to one of our Lutheran Seminaries, naturally the faculty all have to go somewhere for church and we're lucky enough to have several of them call Holy Cross their spiritual home. Dr. Gibbs is a retired faculty member of Concordia Seminary and our Sunday morning Bible Study leader. Not only does he really know his stuff, but he says some really great one liners like, "I always do what Kati tells me to."
Smart guy.
The Gardens
Our garden is blooming gorgeously, as it always does. I've really been enjoying going out there each week to see what new things have bloomed since I last saw it. I particularly enjoyed peeking down the little curls of the fresh Hosta leaves. We're in a solemn season of Lent. Our alleluias are sleeping and our usual joy and excitement is subdued. The weather even seems like it feels a little low right now. Sure, it's sunny, but it's just a little too cold and windy to be perfect. The garden is right there, too. The blooms are coming, but slowly. We know Easter is coming, but it's not here yet. We have to wait just a little while longer until we can wake up our alleluias and rejoice with each other again.
Dovetail at Intersect
We saw a little joy at Intersect's last Dovetail event, The Mark. You can read the entire gallery description on the website but here's a snippet- "The five artists featured in this show mark time, they mark caretaking , they mark memory. They mark with the strokes of a brush, rubbings of a crayon, moulding out of clay, and imprints from press and plate. Similar to scripts, fonts, and handwriting, these artists craft a kind of visceral vocabulary that helps them communicate ideas in new ways. Interpreting these marks tells us something about what each artist sees, what they care about, what they ask us to observe and reflect on."
We saw some really impressive pieces that most of us had been able to explore earlier during our Lenten services in the gallery. We got to see some dancers perform pieces that were inspired by the visual art and, if you've ever been to one of our Dovetails, you'll know that it's not complete without incredible food. Our in-house chef, Alex Braden, creates some tasty dishes for us to try that always change my perception of what kids of food I think I like. The highlight of the night was dessert- ube rice crispy squares with caramel in the middle.
This week
Now we're in Holy Week. We'll meet as a congregation two more times before being able to celebrate the resurrection on Easter morning which is what we're all looking forward to, of course. But we're not there yet. We have the solemnity of Maundy Thursday and the despair of Good Friday to get through first. There's a lot that these services make us look at- the state of the word and ourselves. But I know that Holy Cross will make even the sad things beautiful.
