How Deep Is Your Love?
This week's Weekly Reflections start out with a brief history lesson on Sunday’s special day, Valentine's Day. It is very likely that this day which has been set aside by pop culture to be a day of love, finds its roots in the brutal and violent stoning and beheading of a Christian priest. Quite ironic!
We move from there to a poem written by the multi literary-prize winner (including the Nobel Prize in Literature,1993) Toni Morrison. It is a poem describing a love that requires practice and hard work and active participation, a love that can only be obtained by studying the divine.
Lastly we have a podcast of an interview with a young black man who loses his sense of self as he tours a Slavery Plantation in the far south. With his father at his side he finds his strength again with an act of defiance. This poignant story reminds us that the manner with which we preserve and remember the past is critical.
Loving and Remembering
A Saint, A Poet & The Bible
by the SALT team | February 1, 2021
How would the martyred Valentine feel about the fact that Valentine's Day has turned into a romantic holiday marked with purchased gifts of flowers, chocolates and jewellery? The history of how this day evolved into what it is today, is as uncertain as the future of a love focusing on such frivolity. The team at SALT have put together a short description of what is known about the origin of this day, an origin including martyrdom, Chaucer, and the Song of Songs.
Love is Divine
Toni Morrison was the first African American to win a Nobel Prize. She was a novelist, essayist, book editor, and college professor. Her writing is best known for sharing the Black experience within the Black community. This poem about love is a deep, realistic portrayal of how love is earned. It does away with the "Valentine's Day" notion of love, equating love with God.
Where Was Love?
by CBC radio/Tapestry | January 10, 2020
Many of us may feel as if slavery couldn't possibly exist in today's North American society. Surely we have come too far, we have learned from the horrid past of slavery and the Plantations of the south. This CBC podcast interviews a young black man who partook in a guided planation tour with his father in Louisiana. The focus of the tour, the attention given to the "Big House" where the slave owners lived, is shocking. It reminds us of how important it is to have Black History month, a time for all of us to learn and reflect on what can happen when we forget to love each other as God intends us to love each other. In remembering we are hopefully less likely to repeat the mistakes of the past.
Living Our Faith Day-to-Day
Where He Leads Me
Many of us, even in the cold weather, are taking time during the day to go for short walks. But following in the path of Jesus, sometimes means we just have to cross the room, or walk down the hallway. Practicing the presence of God is a daily, hourly, minute by minute endeavour that means we spend quiet time thinking carefully through our actions and words.