Exuberant Spirituality

A Reflection:
Br. Eldridge Pendleton of the Society of St. John the Evangelist posted on "Brother Give Us a Word" this past Saturday:

It is important, in matters of spirituality, to listen to children. Do not discount as valueless what they have to say. Take them and their comments on spirituality seriously.... [and] let them guide you back to wonder, to the sense of spiritual awe we have lost.

Because yesterday was the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, I read Season of Angels, which is based on the Book of Tobit, as our Scripture reading at the Family Service. Afterwards we talked about angels.

One of the children said that angels are messengers of God who used to be good people when they were alive and became angels when they died. Another said that angels are beings who are sent by God to help people. A shy child said, "I think birds are angels." Then came the suggestion that the spirit of an angel can enter a person, who can then become a messenger or guide or protector from God for someone else. It was as though the conversation begun back in the 1830's with the children in Bronson Alcott's group had continued through the centuries.

After our conversation, we thought about what prayers we'd like to offer. We prayed for a dog that had fallen downstairs, for a friend injured in a soccer game, for a sick sister who couldn't come to church. Then a grandmother who is raising her orphaned grandchildren told a story that was prayer: the children were spending their first autumn in New England, so that morning before church she drove them down a long point of land that stretches out into the bay, where they saw brilliant red and gold leaves against the backdrop of ocean. "My eyes can't move fast enough to see all this beauty!" her granddaughter exclaimed.

Br. Eldridge is right: not only was the conversation about angels both spiritual and thoughtful, but this little girl's excited observation "guided us back to wonder, to a sense of spiritual awe," and awakened us old-timers to the exuberant beauty of a New England fall which we might otherwise take for granted. We are surrounded by beauty and blessings, but it may take a child to help us notice.

A Challenge:
It's too easy to forget that, because we are made in the likeness of an exuberantly creative God, we, too, are meant to be makers and creators. We cannot spin the stars in their courses or paint a Vermont mountain the colors of autumn, but -- as I come back to again and again -- we can bake bread and tell stories with our children, build with blocks or dance to a favorite song. Being creative with our children helps them live into the fullness of life to which God calls them.

So here I am going to repeat my challenge of last week: sometime between now and October 9, sit down with your children and create a story, in this case a green goblin story using the following ingredients: a rolling pumpkin, a river, bungee cords, a stop sign, and a giraffe.

If this is unfamiliar, you can look at the previous post for some background. No, it's not about angels or Jesus (though, of course, it could be), but a way to nurture a sense of creative play in your children.

Once you concoct a story, send it!

Write it up and email it to this email address -- don't be confused by its name; the address was originally created for Star of Wonder, the companion book to Season of Angels.

Oh, and as I also suggested last week, be on the lookout for goblin trees. Send photos to go with stories -- or send pictures even if you don't send a story. Hunting for goblin trees is its own creative endeavor.

Have fun, and in the process, be on the lookout for beauty and blessings -- and if you have a hard time finding them, ask a child to help.

Your turn

Now that there have been five Goblin-to-Go stories, it's time for you (along with your kids) to create a green goblin story of your own. The ingredients for October are: 

* a rolling pumpkin

* a river

* bungee cords

* a stop sign

* a giraffe



See what you can come up with, and send in your stories by Wednesday, October 9. The email address to send it to is connected to Star of Wonder, a Christmas book my niece and I did, but it really is the right one: starofwonderepiphany@gmail.com

If you happen across a goblin tree on your travels, send a photo of that as well. I look forward to sharing what you send, both in story and picture!

  

If you wonder what goblins are doing here, check out "Jesus Told Stories" from back in May. You can also read the other Goblin-to-Go stories here:

Goblin-to-Go Story: worms, a cat, a secret, a red balloon, marigold seeds, a left handed lug wrench, a snickerdoodle

Goblin-to-Go Story: beets (growing in a bucket), a three-legged stool, a helicopter, lemon sherbet, and a dirty fedora

Goblin-to-Go Story: a royal blue elephant, a park bench, a family of teddy bears, driftwood, and a visiting stuffed sheep

Goblin-to-Go Story: a noisy-bully seagull, a bologna sandwich, an old tennis ball, a blind ice cream man, a rainbow bridge

Goblin to Go Story: an apple tree, leaves falling, black-eyed Susans, a horse, people chasing a boy, and a hot falafel

I'm excited to see the stories you create! Enjoy!

A Festal Meal celebrating angels

Because next Sunday is the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, you might consider having a special meal  with foods of the season -- although you could actually have this particular meal any time!  

Suggestions for food are back in the August 26 posting.

Music: Teach the children to sing "Michael, Row the Boat Ashore" so they will be able to sing it during the Festal Meal. It's an old slave spiritual from the Georgia Sea Islands, invoking the Archangel Michael's help in the hard task of rowing to the mainland. (At a deeper level, it's also about the Archangel Michael's task of carrying the souls of those who have died to join their loved ones on the other side of the Jordan River.) Here are a couple of versions you can listen to online to help you teach your children this lively song about angelic help:

A traditional version with familiar lyrics.

A lively version that might inspire you to find tambourines or drums or other percussion instruments for the children to shake or drum or clang as they sing.

Preparing the table: Because Michaelmas has also traditionally been a festival honoring early autumn, each child could make a name card for the table by drawing, cutting out, and coloring an autumn leaf and then writing his or her own name on it. As they write their names on the leaves, remind them that each of us has a name that is precious to God. If you want to establish who sits where, collect the leaves and set them out just before the meal; otherwise let the children put them at their places once they have finished making them (you could continue on here and have the children set the table as well). As a centerpiece on the table to be used for the Festal Meal, arrange a vase or a bowl of fall daisies, choosing what is available in your region, from the tall blue New England asters to the low growing white daisies of the Southwest -- or fill a bowl with autumn leaves. In front of an adult's place at the table, place a candle, to be lit at the start of the Festal Meal, and a bell to ring midway. 

Have fun! 

THE FESTAL MEAL

Preparing the children

Either earlier in the day or at the start of the meal, teach your children the appropriate responses and gestures:

"God was with them:" the children respond while stretching out their arms, palms up.

"God is with us:" the children respond while hugging themselves, arms crossed and hands on opposite shoulders.

After each blessing, teach them to respond "Amen."

Festal Meal Liturgy for the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels (or any time you want to celebrate angels!)

An adult should light a candle and say: Light and peace, in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Everyone: Thanks be to God.

Adult: When God called the Israelites out of Egypt, an angel led the way as a pillar of fire in the night. Later, when the people were lost in the wilderness, God rained down manna for them to eat and gave them grain from heaven. So people ate the bread of angels.

Children (with arms outstretched, palms up): God was with them. 

Adult: As we break this bread together,

Children (with arms crossed, hands on opposite shoulders as though hugging themselves): God is with us.

At this time, pass around the fish pretzels (see the end of the September 15 post for how to make these): ) or any other bread or rolls to share. After a suitable amount of time for eating and talking, everyone should join in singing "Michael Row the Boat Ashore,"  after which an adult should ring a bell to call everyone back to the liturgy. 


Adult: And now may God bless us and keep us.

Children: Amen.

Adult: May God send holy angels to be our guardians and guides. 

Children: Amen.

Adult: May holy angels dwell in our hearts and be companions on our journeys.

Children: Amen.

Everyone: Thanks be to God.

The Festal Meal commences. 

Christmas in September

Just a note that the other book my niece, Sage Stossel, and I collaborated on is currently available from the publisher at a summer sale price of $10:

http://www.forwardmovement.org/Products/2111/star-of-wonder.aspx

Faint remembrances of our angelic life

Back in the 1830's, Bronson Alcott kept a journal in which he recorded "Conversations with Children on the Gospels," classroom conversations that he had with children ranging in age from seven to twelve. Here is part of one about angels:

Mr. Alcott: I should like to know what you each think angels are.

George K: I think angels were good people who lived here.

Emma: Angels are God's messengers, like our thoughts; they bring us our thoughts.

Mr. Alcott: So you think that they are not ourselves, but bring us thoughts. Is there any thing human in them? Can you become angels? Have you been angels? 

George: My spirit was an angel when I was a baby.

Mr. Alcott: What change happens to an angel when it takes a body?

Charles: It becomes human.

George K: Angels are good spirits; once they were in bodies and did good with their bodies. 

Lucia: Spirits in heaven, before they have had a body, are angels.

Martha: Angels are good spirits with or without bodies.

Edward B: I think our ideas of God and divine things are faint remembrances of our angelic life."


It absolutely threw me for a loop to realize that these children are every bit as profound as William Wordsworth's "...trailing clouds of glory do we come / From God, who is our home." It shouldn't have surprised me, though, what with Jesus telling the grown-ups that we need to become like little children.

So don't be shy about talking with your children about angels. They probably know more than we do.

Meanwhile, to continue preparation for celebrating Michaelmas in two weeks -- that's the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels in more modern parlance -- next week I'll post a very brief Festal Meal liturgy you can do at home. Today I'll provide one more suggested food item you can make.

And by the way, you certainly don't have to limit games or songs or food or stories about angels to any particular season -- God promises angels to "keep us in all our ways," which means all the time. So despite the title of my most recent book, angels span every season of the year and of the heart.

Ok, now the food. Since my impetus for learning about angels is connected to having written Season of Angels about the adventures of young Tobias and the Archangel Raphael (adapted from the Book of Tobit), the food -- making fish-shaped pretzels -- comes from one of Tobias's adventures. It's not that angels feast on fish (at least not that I know of, on any regular basis).

http://www.forwardmovement.org/Products/2179/season-of-angels.aspx

To make fish shaped soft pretzels,  use your favorite basic bread recipe, either white or whole wheat, or use store-bought pizza dough or defrosted frozen bread dough. After letting the dough rise once, punch it down and divide it into golf ball size pieces; dough made with four cups of flour will make about 20 balls. Have the children roll their balls into ropes about 10 inches long. To make fish shapes, have the children make ovals with overlapping ends (these ends function as the fish tails). Put the fish shaped dough on a well greased baking sheet about an inch apart and let rise for 20 minutes. This would be a good time to preheat the oven to 350 degrees. After the 20 minutes of rising time, have the children take turns brushing the fish-shaped dough with a mixture of one egg yolk beaten lightly with one tablespoon of milk or cream, then sprinkle coarse salt, poppy seeds, or sesame seeds over them (it's also fine to leave them plain). Put a shallow pan of boiling water on the lowest oven shelf, and on a higher shelf bake the pretzels for 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool on wire racks and save for the Festal Meal -- or eat some as soon as they're cool enough to handle. 


While the children are working on their pretzels, you could remind them about how the angel Raphael stopped the fearsome fish from swallowing the boy Tobias, and about how he got to eat the fish instead! You could also talk about how angels took care of Jesus when he fasted for 40 days in the desert; it's nice to know that even Jesus himself was cared for by angels. As the dough rises, you might tell the story of the multiplication of loaves and fishes--as they watch their own fish-shaped "loaves" get bigger and bigger. 

Enjoy!

Goblin to Go Story: an apple tree, leaves falling, black-eyed Susans, a horse, people chasing a boy, and a hot falafel

Late one Saturday morning in September, the green goblin sat on the lowest branch of an apple tree in an orchard near his home, watching leaves drift slowly on the breeze. He sighed happily.

"I love this time of year!" he thought. Suddenly, plonk! An apple from a higher branch fell and bounced off the goblin's head, then rolled onto the ground. He rubbed his head and laughed, then jumped off his branch to get the apple.

The green goblin never picked apples off the trees because the family that owned the orchard sold the apples at market, but windfall apples were often bruised or wormy, so it was okay to eat the good parts of those apples. Sure enough, this one was squishy and brown on one side, but the rest looked just fine. The goblin took a big bite. It was crisp and crunchy, just the way he liked it. Yum! He did a happy goblin dance amid the falling leaves.

"Whoa! Whoa!" he heard over the sound of his crunching. "Come back!"

The voices were coming from Farmer McEwan's pasture next door. The goblin stuffed the unfinished apple in his pocket and headed toward the fence. He didn't like to be seen by grown-ups, but he did want to know what was happening. Black-eyed Susans bloomed on both sides of the fence, their golden petals looking like a thousands rays of sunlight. They made a perfect place for the goblin to hide.

He scrunched down and peered through the flowers. Farmer McEwan's big brown horse was galloping around the pasture, and holding onto his mane was a boy the goblin didn't know. Farmer McEwan and another man were chasing after the boy on the horse.

"Uh-oh!" said the goblin. "That would be a long way for a boy to fall."

Thinking fast, he whistled quietly to the horse, whose name was Ben. "C'mon, Ben," he whispered. "I have an apple for you." He whistled again. From way across the pasture, Ben's long ears picked up the sound of the whistle, and the promise of an apple. He changed directions and galloped straight to where the goblin was hiding, then stopped.

The boy had bright eyes and a big smile. His fingers were wrapped tightly into Ben's silky mane. "Hi," said the goblin, climbing over the fence. He pulled the half-eaten apple out of his pocket and handed it to the waiting horse, then turned back to the boy. "You are a very brave boy," he said.

"And strong!" the boy responded.

"Yes, and strong. You've had quite a ride, haven't you?"

"Oh, yes!" said the boy. "I loved it!"

"But you're scaring the grown-ups. They don't know how brave and strong you are, and so they worry that you'll fall off, and, well, I worried, too. At least until I met you and can see how careful you are to hold on like that. How come I don't know you? Where are you from?"

"North Carolina," the boy said. "I'm visiting here with my dad.  -- Oh, here he is!" he added as his father and Farmer McEwan came panting up to the horse and boy. "You'll never guess who I just met!" he called to the grown-ups.

But when the boy turned around, the goblin had disappeared back into the flowers. Farmer McEwan slipped a bridle onto the horse to keep him from racing off again while the boy from North Carolina told his father all about the green goblin.

As Farmer McEwan led Ben back to the barn, the boy kept hold of the horse's mane, and for a long time the goblin could still hear the boy's excited voice carried on the wind.

"Well," thought the goblin, "what an adventure! I'm hungry now, though, and Ben ate my apple." He looked around, but there were no more windfall apples on the ground. He sighed. Sometimes grown-ups he secretly helped would put his favorite treat of instant maple and brown sugar oatmeal out on their back porches as a thank-you. "I don't suppose Farmer McEwan will give me any oatmeal today for getting Ben to stop. It's way past breakfast time."

He climbed back up the apple tree, higher this time so he could see all the way to the farmhouse. Everyone had gone inside, but he thought he saw a dish on the back porch. "Oh, maybe it's for me!" He clambered down the tree and raced all the way there.

Waiting for him on the back porch instead of a bowl of oatmeal was a hot falafel wrapped in pita bread. He'd never eaten a falafel before, but as he bit into the crunchy, golden, savory yumminess he gave a contented sigh. "This," he said, "might be even better than apples!"

Preparing for angels: theology and a game

In Scripture, the first thing angels often say is, "Don't be afraid." That makes sense since they are described in bizarre and terrifying ways: with multiple eyes and wings, or as flame, or as strangers who deliver messages that totally disrupt lives and challenge one's understanding of God.

Sometimes, yes, they show up with good and glorious news: Jacob saw angels as messengers moving on a ladder stretched between heaven and earth, and the psalmist says that angels will carry us in their arms, and  angels announced the Messiah's birth to startled shepherds, and angels ministered to Jesus in the wilderness and in Gethsemane -- and I desperately want angels to surround and protect my children and grandchildren for ever and ever.

All this is to admit that although I've written Season of Angels about the Archangel Raphael's journey with young Tobias, my actual understanding of angels remains amorphous and inexpressible.

At a level beyond words, I understand that Hamlet was right: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy" -- and angels are among those "things." Serving eight years as a pediatric hospice chaplain and four more at the prison, however, keeps me from expecting Guardian Angels to prevent horrors from happening. But even (perhaps especially) with dying children, there is often a sense of spiritual depth and courage way beyond their years, as if, even on that final journey, they are surrounded by divine companionship which one might call angels.

Just months before his death, a 13 year-old rewrote the opening of the 23rd psalm to read: "The Lord is my shepherd; he makes me feel safe." And an inmate wrote a prayer that echoes psalm 91: "Keep your hand on my shoulder and always guide me. Walk with me during this winding journey. Please carry me as only you can through these dark waters." Separated by years and bars and death itself, these two people nevertheless articulated a felt sense of companionship with the Holy. Angels ministered to them, even in their own Gethsemanes.

So yes, I find myself willing to say that angels do accompany our children, although I also know such companionship doesn't mean guaranteed safety (I wish it did). Nevertheless, it is that companionship, that "being-with-ness," which can be so important for children to know. I stand by the closing lines of Season of Angels: "Whenever you are set a task to do, a Guardian Angel walks the road with you." And that would still have been true for Tobias if the demon had won or the silver been spent.

Having wrestled with my theology of angels, let's do something more fun. Let's turn to Jacob, another wrestler-with-angels, and get ready to play Pin the Angels on the Ladder that Jacob saw extending between heaven and earth.

Pin the Angels on the Ladder is played like Pin the Tail on the Donkey. Make a ladder out of construction paper, about 18 inches high, and attach it to a wall. 

The children should then each make an angel. While they are working on their angels, you could tell them that descriptions of angels in Scripture vary from human-like, to winged, to frighteningly beautiful and strange creatures with multiple wings and eyes, to images of fire. Encourage them to create an angel that seems right to them. 

You might want to have on hand such staples as construction paper, glitter glue sticks, pipe cleaners, and tissue paper from which they can create their angels. While they are working, tell them about Jacob and his dream of the ladder stretched between heaven and earth, with angels going up and down between. 

Have each child write his or her name on the angel and add a piece of masking tape rolled into a sticky loop. When they are finished, blindfold the children one at a time and spin them around gently. Urge them to walk carefully to where they think the ladder is, hand outstretched with the tape in front so that it sticks to the first surface it touches. You should end up with angels all around the room--a good image of the surrounding protection of angels. If some do get their angels on the ladder itself, you could give them each a star to put on their angels, but remind all of the children that wherever their angel ended up is "good." 

At the end of the game, you could make a mobile of all the angels, hanging them by different lengths of thread from a coat hanger. (The children may want to decorate the back side of their angels before making the mobiles if they didn't do so originally.) Or you might choose to leave them scattered wherever the children "pinned" them. 

Have fun!

Request for next week: It's time to send ingredients for the new Goblin-to-Go story. If this is unfamiliar, check out the blog post "Jesus Told Stories," from May 6, 2013.

The Bread (& Falafel) of Angels

“Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares”  (that’s from the King James translation of Hebrews 13:2). 

More recent translations say that we should show hospitality to strangers because some of those strangers might just be messengers from God: they could be angels! 

The illustration is  from Season of Angels, and the angel there in the back, that others don't yet recognize, is Raphael.

Since I was raised to understand that the basis of hospitality was food, I want to talk today about what foods you and your children could fix for Michaelmas, also known as the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, in late Septmeber. You can practice these foods ahead of time to see if you and the children like them.

An ancient tradition said that blackberries shouldn't be eaten after Michaelmas. Blackberries tend to ferment or mildew in early October, but tradition insists that the berries turn bad because the Devil spat (or urinated) on them when he landed in a bramble bush after Michael threw him out of heaven on this date. So blackberries are often included as part of a meal on this day, to be eaten up by day's end. 

Substituting blackberries in my grandmother Ruth Hanford's blueberry muffin recipe would be yummy. (see the July 15 post "Suffering, Joy, and Blueberry Muffins:" <http://familyfaithincyberspace.blogspot.com/2013/07/suffering-joy-and-blueberry-muffins.html>) Finishing up a batch of blackberry muffins by the end of a day sounds like a rather nice injunction.


Then there's the main course:

In Season of Angels, the Archangel Raphael saves Tobias's life when "a huge and fearsome fish leaped up from the water to swallow the boy." They ended up eating the fish for supper, so fixing a favorite fish dish would be appropriate for the occasion. If you don't have one, here's an incredibly easy tuna casserole that looks like it has worms in it, much to the delight of children. All you do is heat the oven to 350 degrees, empty the contents of the following five cans into a bowl, mix, pour into a small casserole dish, crumble potato chips on top, and bake for 30 minutes: one can of tunafish, one can of cream of mushroom soup, one can of cream of chicken soup, one can of evaporated milk, and one can of Chinese noodles (these are what end up looking like worms).

If you feel wildly ambitious, you could opt instead to roast a goose. A 15th Century tradition said that eating goose on Michaelmas brought financial luck for the year, because geese were so plentiful in late September.

Other foods you could have on the table for Michaelmas include sliced apples to dip in honey (a Jewish custom for this time of year), figs, dates, and raisins as reminders of the food Tobias would have carried on his journey, and olives and almonds which are native to Israel.

For dessert, angel food cake, of course! I have a particular fondness for angel food trifle because not only is it delicious, but an angel food trifle recipe is actually what my son and his wife read back and forth to each other at their wedding rehearsal, rather than giving away the vows they had each written for the wedding itself. A trifle is soaked in a fair amount of sherry, so you may prefer plain angel food cake topped with whipped cream; having the children help with the whipping is a good lesson in the power of that which is invisible as air turns the liquid cream to something more solid.

One of the people I've always named as an angel in my life was a young English seminarian named Paul who was living in the tower of St. George's Cathedral in Jerusalem when my husband and I arrived at the guesthouse there back in 1997. We arrived exhausted from a night and a day of travel, thinking we might just collapse into bed and wait till the next day to explore the Old City, but Paul saw us, came down from his tower, and said, "I'll take you there." So we went with him, down Nablus Road, through the Damascus Gate, and through the winding streets to a quiet outdoor restaurant where we had a supper of falafel and beer. "You can't get lost in the Old City," he told us. "Eventually a street will lead you to the city wall, and a gate, and once outside you can just walk  the perimeter until you find the Damascus Gate and Nablus Road." Paul's physically leading us into the Old City and then telling us, "You can't get lost" gave us  the city, along with a sense of security in a strange place. For me, falafel is the bread of angels. I might add that to my own list of foods for Michaelmas.

Season of Angels, of course, tells another story of angelic companionship: how the Archangel Raphael accompanies young Tobias on a journey that involves a lot more than a simple supper in Jerusalem;  their journey includes a fearsome fish, a beautiful girl, a bag of silver, and a wicked demon. To have the story on hand for Michaelmas, you can preorder the book  -- it's due in the warehouse any day -- at <http://www.forwardmovement.org/Products/2179/season-of-angels.aspx>.

September's angels

The angels keep their ancient places-

Turn but a stone and start a wing!

Those lines come from Francis Thompson's poem "The Kingdom of God," in which he describes how ordinary things are suffused with grace, how the Holy permeates everything. Jesus might just as well be walking on the local river as on the Sea of Galilee, he suggests -- and angels are everywhere!

At the end of next month, on September 29, is Michaelmas, also known as the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels. It's a day that can be a lot of fun to celebrate with children. Over the next weeks, I'll be posting some ideas for crafts, games, music, and food connected with angels that you can do at home to celebrate the season.

Today I'll give some background -- and encourage you to consider reading the picture book that my niece, Sage Stossel, and I did together and that is (as of Aug. 16) available for preorder from the publisher Forward Movement. (The publisher writes: "Season of Angels explores the wonder of God's angels as protectors and messengers. Tobias makes a perilous journey to a faraway city on an important errand for his father. The angel Raphael joins Tobias and keeps him safe on his way.") 

The story begins, "September is the season of angels....." 

Here's some background about angels (this is more for the grown-ups):

Angelic protection: In the late 19th Century, the Rev. Charles Grafton recommended that a child's introduction to God begin with talk about angels, especially their own Guardian Angel. Angels, he writes, are appointed to watch over and guard and protect children. St. Basil writes, "It is a teaching of Moses that every believer has an Angel to guide him [or her] as a teacher and a shepherd." There is a legend stemming from Matthew 18:10 that the Guardian Angels of children always stand close to God because what they do is so important. By introducing children to the angelic protection which surrounds them, parents can give them a deep sense of God's personal, individual love and concern.

Angels as messengers: Our word "angel" comes from the Greek aggelos, translated from the Hebrew mal'akh, meaning "messenger."' Brother John Mathis, S.S.J.E., pointed out, "Now, messengers don't just boot around on their own; they come from a source and are aimed at a target." They come from God, sometimes with specific messages for specific people, sometimes simply with the message of love. Scholars note that as messengers, angels may appear as strangers; we often don't recognize them, just as the boy Tobias simply accepts Raphael as a traveling companion without recognizing that he is an angel. Angelic messages can come through other people and through the natural world; children, in their openness to both worlds, can even serve as angelic messengers to the adult world.

Named angels:  Angels appear in about half the books of the Bible and are mentioned over 300 times. Of the named archangels, Michael is the leader; he is referred to as the angel of righteousness and is noted for his mercy. The Midrash Rabba credits Michael with writing Psalm 85, and tradition says that Michael is recognized by Sarah as one of the "men" who predict Isaac's birth--as well as being the angel who later stays Abraham's hand as he prepares to slay Isaac. Mystical writers equate Michael with the Holy Spirit in Christian understanding and the Shekinah, or Presence if God, in Jewish teachings. Besides being a warrior angel, Michael is named the benevolent angel of death, for it is Michael who weighs the souls of the dead.

Gabriel is the heavenly messenger, a special angel of the Christ, appearing, for example, to Zachariah and to Mary to announce the births of John and Jesus. Islamic tradition sees Gabriel as the 10th and final archangel, the one who rules over the human sphere and all that lies below it; as such he is called the Angel of Humanity. Gabriel is also noted for his courage.

Raphael appears only in the Book of Tobit, and it is his story that’s told in Season of Angels (which takes a few liberties with the text in order to emphasize the loving companionship and protection provided to the anxious young Tobias by the Archangel Raphael). Raphael is especially noted for the quality of love.

The Eastern Church says that since the Christ always existed, any appearance of angels in Hebrew Scripture should be seen as partial manifestations of Christ. This recognition of Christ as both preexistent and contained within angelic visitors is echoed by two Native Americans from the land of the Anishnabe who name Christ as "with us through our entire history"--even before they knew his Name--as "an angel or a guardian spirit."

What all this means is that each child's Guardian Angel contains an element of Christ.

Looking ahead to the next weeks: games, music, food, and fun to help children prepare to celebrate this Feast of Angels in late September! (with a break, of course, for a new green goblin story on Sept. 9)

Goblin-to-Go Story: a noisy-bully seagull, a bologna sandwich, an old tennis ball, a blind ice cream man, a rainbow bridge

The green goblin dangled his feet over the edge of a branch on his knobby old tree.  A full moon hung low in the western sky.

"Owl," he said to the barn owl sitting beside him, "I need your help."

Owl turned his head and blinked.

"You know the beach that circles Haven's Cove?" the goblin went on.

Owl nodded.

"Well, there's a bully that's hanging around that beach, a big old bully seagull that's been stealing from the children."

"But seagulls are scavengers by nature," Owl said. "They'll eat anything they can steal."

"Oh, I know," said the goblin, "but this seagull has started stealing toys as well as food, taking them out over the water and dropping them too far out for the children or even the grown-ups to get. It's just plain mean."

"Hmmm...." said Owl. "What do you have in mind?"

"Well," said the goblin, "I want to catch him and bring him here for a day." He pointed at the knothole that served as the front door into his house.

"And how can I help?"

"If I can catch him, can you carry him here?"

"I think so."

Just as the sun was rising, the green goblin put a half-eaten bologna sandwich, a bright red plastic pail, some green netting, and a roll of heavy string into a paper bag, then climbed onto the owl's back. They flew the short distance to Haven's Cove.

It was too early for any families to be there, but the seagulls were awake and noisy, soaring so high that the early sun lit up the underside of their wings, then diving down to catch a fish or to root around in the sand looking for left-overs from the day before. The goblin slid off Owl's back onto the beach. He set out the sandwich and the pail. Pretty soon, gulls began to swoop down for a closer look at his treasures, but he waved his arms and shouted, "No, they're mine! Go away!"

Then an enormous seagull with a pure white belly and black feathers on his back flew in low and fast and grabbed up the red pail before the goblin could stop him. The gull flew a long way out over the water, then dropped the pail. It looked like a tiny red dot floating out there on the ocean. The gull screeched with delight.

"That's our guy," said the goblin to the owl. He took out the netting, holding it tightly in his right hand, and stood up. When the big seagull swooped down for the bologna sandwich, the goblin flung the netting over him and pulled it tight. The gull was trapped! The goblin used string to wrap around and around the seagull so its wings couldn't open.

Then the goblin climbed back on Owl's back, Owl snagged the wrapped-up seagull in his giant talons, and they flew back to the goblin's tree.

"Good luck!" Owl called as he headed home to his barn for a good day's sleep. "I'll be back after dark to hear how it goes."

"Screech, squawk, help!" screamed the angry gull.

"Oh, dear, I probably should have tied your beak shut, too," said the goblin. "Except then you couldn't eat."

"Eat?" squawked the seagull. "Food! Give me food! Screech! Screech! Squawk!"

"Oh, stop your noise!" demanded the goblin. "I'll feed you when you're ready."

"Ready now! Hungry! Feed me! Now!"

The goblin looked at the wrapped-up seagull standing in his living room. "Come here," he said.

The seagull hopped over to the goblin, who went out the door onto the branch. The seagull hopped after him. The goblin showed the seagull a piece of oatmeal bread, then he leaned over and dropped it onto the ground below. The seagull struggled to free his wings so he could fly down to get the bread, but his wings were trapped. He danced up and down on the branch on his long pink legs, but he couldn't figure out how to get to the bread.

The goblin went back inside the tree and put a pot of water on the stove. When the water was hot, he made two bowls of instant maple and brown sugar oatmeal. Then he leaned his head out the door and asked, "Are you still hungry? There's food inside."

The seagull  hopped back through the door and into the goblin's kitchen. "What's that?" he squawked, smelling the warm oatmeal.

"It's the best food in the whole world," said the goblin.

The goblin lifted the seagull onto the table. The seagull stuck his beak into the oatmeal and lifted his head to swallow. He stuck his beak back into the oatmeal over and over till it was all gone. "More!" he demanded.

"Fix it yourself," said the goblin, who was just finishing his own bowl of oatmeal. "There's water in the pot and another packet of oatmeal right there next to you."

The seagull looked from the stove to the table. He reached out and tried to use his beak to turn the stove on, but he couldn't do it.  He picked up the packet of oatmeal in his beak and shook it, but it didn't open. He tried dropping it on the floor, the way he dropped clams to break open their shells, but not only did the packet not open, he couldn't fly down to the floor to get it. "I can't," he said to the goblin. "You get me more."

The green goblin came and stood in front of the seagull. "Not yet. I want you to think about something first. You think it's fun to steal food and toys from children. Now the food I understand; it's not nice, but it's nature. But the toys! You take toys and drop them so far out to sea that no one can get them back. And you don't even play with them. That's just plain mean. So for now, I'm going to leave you here so you can look at the oatmeal packet for awhile and imagine what it's like for those of us that can't fly to see something that we want -- something that you stole -- and not be able to reach it."

The goblin went out the door and climbed down the tree, leaving the seagull stranded on the table. He found an old tennis ball in the grass and kicked it ahead of him as he meandered along. He heard the music of the ice cream cart and veered off to find it. The ice cream man was blind, so if no grown-ups were around, the goblin liked to spend time visiting with him because the blind man never suspected he was talking to a goblin. Today, though, there was a long line of children with their parents waiting to get ice cream, so the goblin just quietly rolled the tennis ball to the blind man's guide dog, then turned back toward home just as clouds began to gather.

The seagull was still standing on the table where the goblin had left him. "Screech! Let me go! How do you stand not being able to fly?" he squawked. " I remember the bread on the ground. I can see the oatmeal packet on the floor. But I can't get to any of it. I hate this!"

"You can still walk," said the goblin.

"But that's not enough. I'm a bird! You're mean, goblin, to wrap me up like this! I'm starving to death, and my legs are tired from standing, and the whole sky is calling to me."

The goblin sighed. "Do you have any idea yet why I had Owl bring you here?"

"Because you're mean."

"No, because you are. I'm going to free your wings now so you can fly again, but what I really wish is that you might think twice before you steal things you don't even need. I wish you would remember what it's like not to be able to fly."

He got a pair of scissors and carefully cut the heavy string that bound the seagull's wings. The seagull spread his wings, knocking pots and pans off near-by shelves, then he bolted for the door and took off into a soft rain, wheeling and screeching with joy. The goblin watched as the seagull flew toward a rainbow that arched up into the clouds.

The green goblin hunched his shoulders and sighed again. "I don't think that did much good," he thought as he turned back into his kitchen and began to pick up the scattered pots and pans.

The sun was down and the moon just peering over the horizon when Owl tapped at the door with his beak. When the goblin opened his door, Owl set down a red pail. "I found this hanging on a branch of your tree," he said. "Is it yours?"

A world alive with color

Reminder: Next week is the second Monday of the month, which means a Goblin-to-Go story. Send suggested “ingredients” for the story! If this is new to you, check out “Jesus Told Stories” from May 6, 2013: http://familyfaithincyberspace.blogspot.com/2013/05/jesus-told-stories.html

Once again I’m writing from 38,000 feet airborne, returning home from a conference on the intersection of art and faith put on by Image magazine. Poets, painters, playwrights, mystics and musicians, photographers, novelists and essayists all gathered in Santa Fe for a week of workshops, worship, and performance, interwoven with ongoing conversations about creativity and Christianity. 

Living for a week in a community of Christian artists was extraordinary on many levels, but what lodged in my heart were the stories of those who had grown up in what they sometimes called the “black and white world” of fundamentalism but who, through encounters with music or a book or a poem or a film or a friend, suddenly saw the wideness of God’s mercy and the interconnectedness of all life.  As Fr. Richard Rohr says, they realized that “Everything belongs.” Suddenly their lives pulsated with color, with possibility, with ambiguity, with doubt that fueled a deeper faith. And from this awakening came creative outpourings, as though the only response to the glory of God was to seek ways to express it.

Their stories reinforced my own sense that engaging children in creative pastimes is a deeply Christian endeavor, one that makes them co-creators of the world they inhabit. Creativity is incarnational. My own instructor, Jeffrey Overstreet, spoke of how we all “carry eternity in our hearts” and so are able to recognize the holy in the most unlikely places – such as the film clip he showed us of Spiderman…. 

So spend time this week making up stories, building sand castles or block cities, dancing to music, putting on a puppet show, playing with play dough – baking bread. And next week, we’ll create a story together.