whit-week

and what, you might well wonder, is that picture. it is a sheep door. i am posting it because it illustrates today's (whit tuesday's) gospel. and i like that whitsunday, pentecost, lingers a bit, that it has an octave.

you see, for me the fifty days have passed rather too quickly. they have been great big ol' days, starting with a huge rain which, although it certainly could remind one of one's baptism and the need to be thankful, also moved the lighting of the new fire inside, where i was so excited about the eve of easter that i forgot the psalms in the vigil.

now, fifty-two days later, i find myself still on pivot rock road, where i had not expected to be able to stay, and where i celebrated the eve of pentecost amongst the green fire of beltane and said the kneeling prayers of pentecost vespers and still found that i wanted more of this amazing season.

so i am happy that the gelasian sacramentary and the apostolic constitutions gave us proper readings to celebrate monday and tuesday of this week. then pope gelasius reiterated the importance of the ember days this week, and a few hundred years later proper readings for thursday were added, making this a week for considering what happened, how were we changed during the great fifty days, and what lies ahead of us as ministers of the glory of the holy one. (the first octaves were in the west those of easter and pentecost, in the east that of the epiphany; pretty clearly days of recollection for the newly baptized.)

it is in this context that i found perhaps the most meaningful readings of these last few days amongst the texts for the first vespers of pentecost:

". . . thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondsman in egypt." (deuteronomy 16:12a)
and
". . . reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." (romans 8:18)

i am no longer in egypt; i may find myself in a desert, i may chose to be in a desert, but i am free. the revelation of the glory awaits.