{"id":2224,"date":"2017-03-01T00:00:14","date_gmt":"2017-03-01T05:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/mission-and-identity\/?p=2224"},"modified":"2019-09-18T16:47:14","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T20:47:14","slug":"march-1-lent-in-anglo-saxon-means-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/2017\/03\/01\/march-1-lent-in-anglo-saxon-means-spring\/","title":{"rendered":"March 1 ” Lent, ” in Anglo-Saxon, means “Spring”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, March 1<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 \u00a0Lent: \u00a0\u201cThere lives the dearest freshness deep down things\u201d \u00a0{G. M. Hopkins, sj}<\/p>\n

\u201cLent,\u201d \u00a0originally the word initially simply meant \u201cspring\u201d\u00a0(\u201cas in the German language\u00a0Lenz\u00a0and\u00a0Dutch<\/a>\u00a0lente) and derives from the\u00a0Germanic<\/a>\u00a0root for \u201clong\u201d\u00a0because in the spring the days visibly lengthen.\u201d\u00a0Wikipedia) \u00a0The English spoken in the United States originated in \u00a0England, as a blend of Anglo-Saxon (German roots) and French (from the Norman Conquest of 1066).<\/p>\n

In Detroit\u2019s climate, you might say that \u201cSpring\u201d means the season when trees and shrubs and flowers and grass look dead and very gradually tell the careful observer that they are coming back to life. \u00a0Very gradually. \u00a0For some years, I\u2019ve followed a ritual to remind myself about how slowly Spring happens: \u00a0I look for a large shrub or a low-hanging tree branch somewhere along a campus pathway I walk. \u00a0I stop nearby, close, so I can look at one twig on its branch from a distance of 6 to 8 inches and look at the twig for half a minute or so, paying attention to signs of rebirth. \u00a0 I try to remember to stop there 3-4 times a week. \u00a0 From day to day not much new happens. \u00a0 Little by little, though, attention at close range gets a chance to surprise to looker.<\/p>\n

Stopping and looking is a form of Lenten prayer and helps more than giving up candy or beer. \u00a0Stopping and looking at a twig on a shrub can be a metaphor for close watching other parts of life and waiting there in hope: a \u00a0child growing up; \u00a0a city laboring through its rebirth; an angry country turbulent and contentious. A university teeming with people trying to learn, trying to teach, trying to renew our day to day operations. \u00a0Beauty all around us. \u00a0Fasting from gloom, stopping and paying attention to a nation short on hope, the Lenten prayer invites the pray-er to wait for the season\u2019s improbable signs of new life.<\/p>\n

The growing length of daylight during Lent comes to about 3 minutes more light each day.<\/p>\n

Have a blest weekend.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

john sj<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Today\u2019s Post: \u00a0 \u00a0\u201cGod\u2019s Grandeur\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
\nIt will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
\nIt gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
\nCrushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
\nGenerations have trod, have trod, have trod;
\nAnd all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
\nAnd wears man\u2019s smudge and shares man\u2019s smell: the soil
\nIs bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.<\/p>\n

And for all this, nature is never spent;
\nThere lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
\nAnd though the last lights off the black West went
\nOh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs \u2014
\nBecause the Holy Ghost over the bent
\nWorld broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.<\/p>\n

Gerard Manley Hopkins \u00a028 July 1844 \u2013 8 June, 1889<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wednesday, March 1\u00a0\u2013 \u00a0Lent: \u00a0\u201cThere lives the dearest freshness deep down things\u201d \u00a0{G. M. Hopkins, sj} \u201cLent,\u201d \u00a0originally the word initially simply meant \u201cspring\u201d\u00a0(\u201cas in the German language\u00a0Lenz\u00a0and\u00a0Dutch\u00a0lente) and derives from the\u00a0Germanic\u00a0root for \u201clong\u201d\u00a0because in the spring the days visibly … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":139,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11641],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2224"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/139"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2224"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2225,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2224\/revisions\/2225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.udmercy.edu\/poetry\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}