It was my son Benjamin’s first day of school at Boston Latin.  I had just begun a new position and was newly married. Driving near Boylston Street, I came to an intersection where there was a four-way flashing yellow light.  Overgrown tree branches hid the light. In the middle of the intersection another car careened into the passenger side of my car causing major damage to the car, my pride, and my son’s sense of well-being.  The car was not drivable.  We were not injured.

I was shaken and upset, and worried that Benjamin would be traumatized forever, the cost of repairs would sink our budget into oblivion, and my husband, Ray, would be angry with me.  With all this on my mind, I called Ray from a nearby public telephone booth.  Sheepishly I reported my predicament.  I still needed to get Ben to school.  Feeling like a fool and that I had ruined Ben’s first day of school, my car, and caused all sorts of problems, I told Ray what had happened and braced for harsh words. I heard the sweetest response.  “Are you okay?”  It still brings tears to my eyes as I write this.  What I was expecting was recrimination, chastisement, and anger.  What I got was love, concern, compassion, and empathy.

We learn about ourselves, our relationships and about love in these little events.  Ray showed me more love in that moment than I thought I deserved.  It was one of the many ways that I understood his love for me.  It is also one of the ways that I experienced a sliver of the love that God has for me.

God’s love is like that.  It is found in the space between relationships and is the tangible sense of well-being that comes in unexpected ways.  It is there in the breath of soft words in times of need, empathy, compassion and understanding between one another.

We lost a member of our congregation, Virginia Lamb, this week.  I have witnessed the ways in which the Emmanuel community has ministered to her over the years.  After she went to live at Sherrill House some of you called and reached out to her to keep her connected.  She was welcomed and nurtured in the life of the parish.  I also know that Virginia was a complicated and sometimes difficult person.  Even so, we held her in our midst, offered her the unexpected love that we know is there for her – for us, too, from God.

Now, Virginia is with Our Lord.  God will hold her to his bosom, and she will be safe and loved and happy.  We at Emmanuel helped to bring her to that place by loving her in God’s house, our house of prayer.

So be at peace, knowing that all things are made well through God and that our rewards will be unexpected and undeserved.

Virginia will be buried at Mount Hope Cemetery on Monday, May 11 in a graveside service.  May she rest in peace in the eternal arms of our loving creator.

The Rev. Joyce Caggiano

Join Bishop Curry each week to cultivate a ‘habit of grace.’ This meditation can be watched at any time by clicking here.

If we were prisoners incarcerated for a punishable deed, we would likely be marking each day awaiting return to home or to normalcy. When I think about what it might be like to be in jail, I think to myself, “well, that’s not so bad.”  I would read books, meditate, pray, draw, etc.

The truth is that we are now in a kind of incarceration. So, I ask myself, why am I not calmly counting days reading, praying etc.?  The truth is when we are ‘counting days’, we often get caught in focusing on getting back to normal life… to home… to whatever we ‘used to do’.

One of the hardest tasks of Christian life is to recognize the presence of God in our lives, in our homes, and in our hearts.  The Holy Spirit lives in and around us, not out there in the future.  Today our physical situation (except for those essential workers who are incredibly busy and stressed) is one of ‘stasis’ – static – the same day after day.

Looking to the future is natural. We want things to return to normal. Yet while thinking ahead is good, it is also not very satisfying.  So, we are waiting for a return to normal. While waiting, however, we are missing the present.

We find God in the PRESENT. The Holy Spirit does not come as a future but as a present reality.  Our task as Christians is to focus on what is here and now. What are we waiting for? The answer is that life is happening now.  Right here, inside our hearts and minds — inside our houses and our families and our solitude.

So, instead of counting down, we are called to count up!  Let us count up our blessings, count up our family and friends and count on the Spirit that remains with us, faithfully through all that is happening now.

We can be ready by counting up— ready for the new “opening.”  The opening of our communities and also the opening of ourselves to the presence of God in the world.

The new re-opening means moving together in lock step with the God who is here now sustaining us.

Peace,

The Rev. Joyce Caggiano

Join Bishop Curry each week to cultivate a ‘habit of grace.’ A new meditation will be posted on Mondays through May. These meditations can be watched at any time by clicking here.

The Boston was to have happened on Monday. It did not. And yes, this quarantine is like a marathon and we have come to the part that in Boston we call Heartbreak Hill —or is it Heart Brake Hill?

No museums are open, nor any playgrounds where out-of-school children can play. No theaters, restaurants or other entertainments are available to us.

For me, the most difficult thing is I can’t walk the beaches on brisk spring days when flowers are in bloom and summer is just ahead.

So, here we are, running through an unwanted, least expected time of stress. This feels a lot like a marathon, and we are reaching the end of tolerance.

Who would have thought a year ago that schools and workplaces would be closed for months or that 25 million Americans would be filing for unemployment? We could not have imagined sheltering at home to stop the spread of a deadly disease. But that is what we are facing, and it is a heart break.

Some of us are fed up and asking why? Some of us are asking, what can I do? So here is some help with that.

Try taking a “heart brake.”

Take this time to do for yourself things you have never had time for or dared to do:

• Sleep when you need to
• Read the books you have stored on your shelf
• Send or leave a friend a gift of flowers, masks, or just a written note (Many of our elderly are shut in and do not even have access to internet. Some do not have TVs)

It is a time for us to look outward and to become the bearers of God’s good news through our actions.

I have no doubt that God is with us in this pandemic, asking us to rethink what is and who are important to us. We might face our limitations and maybe even dare to do something we have never done before. Paint a picture. Cook a gourmet meal. Give to someone in need. Take stock of those we have harmed or disliked. Re-assess the issues.

Pray, think, sing! Dance like no one is watching. As I sit here in my dining room, I can hear the someone singing on my street, “When the Saints go marching in!”

Be joyful my friends. We are living in history. What we do today is a measure of our substance. And yes, God is there cheering us on.

Be well, this “heartbreak” can be fixed, and this ‘brake’ is ours for the making of a blessing.

God Bless you all,

The Rev. Joyce Caggiano

I’m writing this because as Christians and citizens it is important that we recognize that the “new normal” everyone is talking about is real.  We are facing a subtle but real change in our lives as social beings.

We live in a new volatile world at this moment in time.  It reminds me of the fears that must have been experienced during WWII.  The Japanese Americans were put in camps out of fear that they were our enemy.  Men who were rejected by the Armed Services were ostracized.  People who had access to desired resources became special. Befriending the right people might get you the things you needed or wanted.

Today we are living in a different world than any of us have ever known.  For example, I am home schooling my grandchildren.  The first week was frustrating. Not enough bandwidth on the internet. The second week was better.  The third week was miserable.  The fourth week we have settled in to OUR new normal.

Many people, including myself, are making masks so that people can protect themselves from an invisible enemy that seems to be winning this war.  I am also sewing medical gowns for my daughter’s nursing home staff.  Why?  Because there is a scarcity and inadequacy of vitally necessary equipment.  Something none of us could have imagined only months ago.

A few days ago, I went to my favorite local discount fabric store to buy fabric for the medical gowns.  The owner of the store (whom I’d never met before) gave me 50 yards of nylon waterproof fabric for $2 per yard. That made 25 gowns.  Yesterday I went back to purchase the last of his supply.

But this time the owner wasn’t there.  When I placed my bolt of fabric on the counter, I asked if I could receive the discounted price.  (Full price was $2.99 per yard). The clerk looked at me suspiciously and refused to give me the discount. She told me I could wait for the owner if I wanted.  I couldn’t. Then she looked at me with a subtle kind of fear and told me to step back away from her. There was a very large counter between us at least five feet wide.  I stepped back and paid the full price for the same fabric. I left feeling sadness and frustration.

Are we afraid of one another now more than before? Have you noticed that people who are carefully “social distancing” are sometimes actually unfriendly? Are we more suspicious of one another? Is this the new social order? When we are hoarding, it means taking more than we need and the result is that others don’t have enough. Is this what we WANT?

Living as a community is more important than ever. As a parish community this pandemic makes our work critical to the health of our world.  The only way through this pandemic is to hold tight to the things that matter.  Not physical things but the things that make our lives rich with joy and peace and generosity.  Our faith in a God that loves us through the most difficult circumstances.  A God that never leaves us.  Emmanuel Church is like many Christian communities today, struggling to make our way back to normal.  But normal today is new and different.  The “different” needs to shape us into better people, the way that Jesus taught us.  The WAY that makes us children of the light, bearers of love and compassion.  The WAY of the Lord, the one who will carry us into life again and again and again.

I miss you all and pray for you.  Be well, be safe, be generous, patient and compassionate.  Our faithfulness will bring us into the “new normal” full of the glories of God.

Peace to you, my friends,

The Rev. Joyce Caggiano

LITURGIES OF THE HEART April 8, 2020

Well, here we are in the strangest Holy Week ever experienced. Some of us found solace in the quiet, sometimes sad, contemplative liturgies of Holy Thursday, and Good Friday.

For many Lutherans the Good Friday Passion is the highlight of the liturgical year. In Germany that is very evident. Perhaps those of you who come from that tradition feel that. When I was a girl, my friends and I would go out to buy new hats, the Easter Bonnet. Then, perhaps even a whole outfit for Easter. It was a chance to be extravagant and elegant, sometimes even with white gloves. My brothers would laugh at us and say that we were wearing ‘lamp shades’ on our heads.

So, this morning I was experimenting with the masks I am making, perhaps adding feathers or lace to them! How funny they looked. I was going to send a picture to you all but then I saw myself in the mirror and thought…. hmmmm, NO. Maybe my brothers were right!

The shopping and dressing up was all part of the preparation and the buildup for the big day – Easter – the celebration of the Resurrection. Being ‘shut in’ by the virus raging around us gives us pause to hold on to what is most valuable, to appreciate one another and the gift of our church. We won’t be able to see one another. No hats or masks of any kind will be viewed or commented on, no listening to blessed music, smelling candles burning, feeling the silence and comfort of just being in that beautiful loved and lovely space.

Alas, Jesus gets the final word even on this. I imagine him saying, “find it in yourselves”. The true Resurrection is there. It comes from the finest of God’s gifts, Grace. And you can’t buy that in any store. It is in the storeroom of your heart. Sit still, call upon the Lord, recognize God’s presence, open yourself to the love so abundantly shared and be at peace this Holy Week and Easter. In the meantime, there is talk of a huge celebration after we are cleared for socializing! A feast of extraordinary proportions!

That resurrection will surely light a fire in our hearts. In the meantime, stay close to one another in the distances we are permitted and remember that Jesus instituted the Eucharist at the Last Supper, celebrated on Maundy Thursday and that the death of Jesus on Friday was GOOD – because life begins when all is lost and we are brought to our knees in adoration of the greatest gift of all, God’s son, Jesus.

With love,

The Rev. Joyce Caggiano