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Morning Meditation
During the Season of Lent
March 31, 2025
Invitatory
Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel, who alone does wondrous deeds!
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit: as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever. Amen.
100 Jubilate Deo
Be joyful in the Lord, all you lands;
serve the Lord with gladness
and come before his presence with a song.
Know this: The Lord himself is God;
he himself has made us, and we are his;
we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving;
go into his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and call upon his Name.
For the Lord is good;
his mercy is everlasting;
and his faithfulness endures from age to age.
Meditation-Rebecca Northington
I write this meditation from a flat in Paris where my family has spent Spring Break marveling at the thousands of years of history here. The Latin Quarter hosts a first century Roman amphitheater still used today as a neighborhood park. A fifteen minute walk towards the St. Germain neighborhood brings you to the Abbey of Saint Germain, which was completed in 558 AD, and remains central to the bustling neighborhood. And just a short walk down to The Seine we view the majesty of Notre Dame, the 10th century cathedral which famously burned not long ago, reminding us of the fragility of all things man made. It has been rebuilt and is breathtaking in its scale and beauty.
The influence of King Louis the XIV(ruled from 1643-1715), known as the “Sun King” is still very much alive all over Paris and Versailles. Louis transformed Paris during his 72 year reign into an opulent social, political and cultural influence, as he expanded French rule into the colonies and amassed extreme wealth and power. His style and personality is seen in today’s couture fashion houses all over Paris.
The French Revolution haunts this city, as tour guides describe where the beheadings took place, where the bodies were placed(the catacombs) and the social impact of the “reign of terror”. Napoleon may have ended a bloody chapter in French history as he rose to leadership out of the revolution, but he is complex for the French to remember because of the impressive progress he established in the 19th century that ceased when he chose ultimate power over the people.
The Eiffel tower is not far from Napoleon's grand avenues. Built for the World Fair in 1889 and the centennial of the French Revolution, the tower comprehensively ushers in a new Parisian era interrupted by the World Wars of the 20th century. Paris is steeped in history central to our modern ethos.
The French Revolution and World War II were present in every tour we experienced here, including our last evening at the Louvre. Originally a fort to protect the city from the Vikings and the English, the fort was turned into a Palace for the French monarchy in the 16th century, and eventually into the Louvre we all know.
It houses an overwhelming collection of work, 35,000 pieces in exhibition with 5 times that stored elsewhere in the Louvre. With the help of a tour guide, we spent three hours viewing the greatest hits: a rare gypsum statue from Ain Ghazal, Jordan, dated 7000 BCE, the Winged Victory or Nike statue, Venus, and of course Mona Lisa. But there were two pieces our tour guide really highlighted for us. The first was a lesser known da Vinci piece: The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne, seen at the top of this meditation. The piece was unfinished by da Vinci and our tour guide’s belief is that it represents the universal love of mother to child as seen through St. Anne towards Mary, and Mary towards Christ - as Christ grapples with the sacrificial lamb that he will come to represent. The traditional belief in the Catholic tradition is that Anne died in childbirth (found in the early Christian text the Protoevangelium of James, a non-canonical text), so this vision of her with Mary and the baby Jesus reflects a sense that even death cannot extinguish love. It is a piece that stuck with me as we exited the museum. We talked repeatedly throughout the tour of Agape as represented in artwork. The self emptying love of Christ for all of us, and the kind of inexplicable love a mother might feel for a child, or we all might feel for God and for one another. I was reminded that there are five kinds of love in Greek, all of which were represented by artwork in this museum. Storge - a kind of familial love, or love of dependence. Mania - more of a lustful love-often to be avoided as it ends in disaster. Eros - an electrifying, exciting, butterflies in the belly kind of love. Philia - a mutual friendship kind of love/kindred spirits, with the city of brotherly love representing this ideal. But Agape is one of humanity’s highest expressions of love. It is often self sacrificing, and never fades.
As I read today’s Psalm-one we all know well-I was reminded of this kind of love, the kind that “endures from age to age”. God' mo I I’ll love for us, our love for God, and our love for one another. Much of this week was spent reflecting on what has passed in this city and in this part of the world. There is no escaping the magnitude of World War II as its scars are everywhere. With a day trip to Normandy we did a deep dive into the events of D-Day and the graveyards there speak of lives sacrificed in Philia and Agape: self-giving love. Humanity, like the Bible itself, is a story of evil and lust for power. But also, at its best, it is a story of love. The grand and violent, and the gentle and tender. As I considered all of those young soldiers jumping from their boats into total chaos and potential darkness; I realized that they offered their lives for strangers. They forfeited lives of comfort, dreams, and families for all of us. I know that for many of them, Jews and Christians alike, their faith in God’s steadfastness is what gave them the strength to face imminent death. They gave of themselves entirely, and for nothing in return. I cannot help but wonder, what would I have done in their shoes.
Prayer
Almighty God, whose beloved Son willingly endured the agony and shame of the cross for our redemption: Give us courage to take up our cross and follow him: who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen
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