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Passiontide
When you listen carefully to the words of the Act of Consecration of Man you will eventually notice that a few times something is lacking. Although in itself the text is perfect, it sounds as if some sentences are not complete. The verb is lacking:
Christ in us
Christ in the lifting of our hands
Christ’s light in our daylight
These sentences move in a realm between possibility, wish, and full reality. Is Christ fully in us? Or is that a wish? A prayer? A promise?
The only thing we know for sure is that He is usually not in us, when we are busy with our everyday things.
Christ in the lifting of our hands—that does not happen all by itself just by lifting up our hands.
Christ’s light in our daylight—it has not yet appeared, but we, He and I together, have to make this possibility a reality.
At this time of year, we enter a world of darkness that shows us from all sides: Christ is not in us—on the contrary. For now, we find ourselves in a state of isolation and deprivation, far from the light of Christ. Passiontide is a time of disillusion, of painful diagnosis of our human shortcomings, in which we have to accept how poor we are, since we lost the spirit.
Ask the Savior for healing.
Pray for Christ’s light in our daylight.
Lift up your hands as a beggar for the Spirit—and He will stretch out His hands to you.
Ask, pray, seek—and it shall be given to you.
–Rev. Bastiaan Baan, March 14, 2021
“The Light of the Body is Your Eye” (Lk.11:34)
A large part of our lives—maybe the largest part—consists of watching events without being able to do anything. That is true for the news the world dishes up for us every day; it is also true for countless events that happen to us. Natural disasters, illness, human tragedies, war and terror—they all put their stamp on the world, and we, powerless, can only watch. This powerlessness is our collective lot; and it is also a sign of this time. We have developed a spectator consciousness that has the tendency to keep looking, even when the situation asks us to act. “I stood there and watched.” No more, but also no less. Rarely do we realize that through our glance we can add something to the reality around us. How do we look at it?
One person’s confused gaze makes the darkness around him or her even more turbid than it already is, whereas another can light up the darkness with a lucid glance.
Of course this does not relieve us of the duty to act when we possibly can. But if watching is the only thing we can do, our glance has to be clear.
“The light of the body is your eye.”
Our eyes can do much more than watch: they can perceive. And if our inner light is sufficiently lucid, they can do even more than perceive clearly. They can add something to the reality:
A look of recognition
An enlightening insight
A stream of love.
-Rev. Bastiaan Baan, March 7, 2021
This summer, the Youth Adventure Camp of The Christian Community is going to the trail, to the beach, to the rivers. We will run outdoor adventure camps this summer with room for twenty participants on each trip.
Each trip will create an independent and full camp experience, with singing, stories and projects as well as the outdoors camping aspect of building our own camp, cooking our own food, and on some trips, traveling to our next camp location.
How to Heal? A Youth Conference
June 16 – 23, Atlanta, GA
For rising 9th – 12th graders
North Carolina Kite Camp
June 27 – July 3, Hammocks Beach State Park
for rising 6th – 8th graders
NY Backpacking Camp
July 12 – 21, Harriman State Park
for rising 6th – 8th graders
Youth Adventure Canoe Camp
July 26 – August 5, Flambeau River, Wisconsin
for rising 9th – 12th graders
Children’s Canoe Camp – Camp Greenwood Lake
August 8 – 18, Namekagon River, Wisconsin
for rising 6th – 8th graders
Participation cost is $1000
with a $100 sibling discount for each sibling attending
FINANCIAL AID: No one should stay away for financial reasons! Financial Aid is available on a need and availability basis. Email Youth Adventure Camp director Jen Zimberg at ccyouthadventurecamp@gmail.com