One of the most significant, powerful moments in my work as a criminal defense attorney came on a day when my client and I lost our motion for a modification of his sentence. But it was a moment that brought joy and hope rather than the disappointment and frustration we expected. It was a drunk driving and manslaughter case that had resulted in the death of a young mother. The young man charged and convicted of her death had tried to enter a guilty plea but the judge refused to accept the agreement between the state and defense and offered a much higher sentence with a promise to consider a modification later without any guarantees it would be granted. I did not represent this young man at the time of his plea, but I believe his healing and growth as a man began at the moment that he decided to accept the higher sentence this judge offered. After some time in the Division of Corrections, this young man’s case manager at the prison submitted his name for consideration for participation in a new program they offered through a grant where certain inmates could get one-on-one psychotherapy weekly for a year to deal with untreated traumas they had experienced before entering the prison. I do not recall the details of this client’s traumas, nor do I feel it appropriate to share here but I do recall he suffered severe loss and trauma at a young age that contributed to his use of drugs and/or alcohol. I also recall that he was severely suicidal after surviving the car accident that caused the death of the young mother. I have never heard on any other clients before or since getting psychotherapy while in prison but believe it’s a key to stopping the trend of high rates of recidivism to lives of crime/drug use after prison. Of course, naturally, it’s better to find ways to identify those victims of trauma and get them psychotherapy before any criminal activity occurs. At the hearing for a possible modification of this man’s sentence, we heard from the mother of the woman who was killed. She was raising her granddaughter and was still recovering from the loss of her daughter at the hands of my client. But she had worked through her own therapy sessions and with the help of her pastor had come to forgive the man who killed her daughter and wanted only the best for him in his future. She came to the hearing to say that to the judge and to the man who killed her daughter. Once that was said, no one could talk for several minutes, and it didn’t matter that the judge failed to modify the sentence in any way. We felt the power of forgiveness and faith in that courtroom that day.

Be silent. Be still. Alone. Empty Before your God. Say nothing. Ask nothing. Be silent. Be still. Let your God look upon you. That is all. God knows. God understands. God loves you With an enormous love, And only wants To look upon you With that love. Quiet. Still. Be. Let your God - Love you. by Edwina Gateley

From Palm Sunday and the Meditations on the Passion through the three services on Easter Sunday, solemn and special worship services take place throughout this Holy Week. The three holy days - or Triduum - of Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday are at the heart of the Holy Week observance at Christs Church. Be with us as we reflect on the Lenten season and welcome the celebration of the Resurrection. You can view the entire Lenten & Holy Week schedule and their details on our website's Lent at Christ Church page.

This Palm Sunday evening, Christ Church will present Meditations on the Passion, a special service of poems, readings, dance, song, and prayer. Join us at 7:30 p.m. in the New Brick Sanctuary as we contemplate the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ in a way that makes us realize the immense love He has for each one of us, a love which is capable of suffering and death in order to free us from our sins. Tonight's Worship Livestream: You can worship with us by using this leaflet.

Today is April 10, 2022 - Palm Sunday. Collect of the Day: Almighty and everliving God, in your tender love for the human race you sent your Son our Savior Jesus Christ to take upon him our nature, and to suffer death upon the cross, giving us the example of his great humility: Mercifully grant that we may walk in the way of his suffering, and also share in his resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. Readings for today: The Liturgy of the Palms Luke 19:28-40 The Liturgy of the Word Isaiah 50:4-9a Psalm 31:9-16 Philippians 2:5-11 Luke 22:14-23:56 Today's Worship Livestream: You can join us for today's service by using this leaflet.

On weekdays during the season of Lent, we post daily meditations on our website, and on Saturdays we include a piece of music, as well. These songs are submitted by parish family members and friends of Christ Church, and meant to uplift, comfort, and inspire. We hope that you enjoy. One bread, one body, one Lord of all One cup of blessing which we bless And we, though many, throughout the Earth We are one body in this one Lord Gentile or Jew Servant or free Woman or man No more One bread, one body, one Lord of all One cup of blessing which we bless And we, though many, throughout the Earth We are one body in this one Lord Many the gifts, many the works One in the Lord Of all One bread, one body, one Lord of all One cup of blessing which we bless And we, though many, throughout the Earth We are one body in this one Lord We are one body in this one Lord Songwriter: John B. Foley

For our Lenten booklet in the year after my Mom died, I wrote a piece about her titled “The Power of Thank You”, about how long after she disappeared mentally and verbally, she still said an almost inaudible “thank you” to everyone, about everything, large and small, significant and insignificant. She did not anymore know who the person was who was speaking with her or helping her, and often it was unclear whether she understood the service being performed, but no matter - there was that “thank you”, every time, to every person. Somehow, there still remained inside this woman, once so mighty, now so diminished, an enormous, still-flowing reservoir of gratitude, a reservoir that could not be stopped or used up by the ravages of age and mental decline. Even though almost everything else had ended, Mom’s gratitude did not. And we had the evidence of that, every day, in each murmured “thank you”. I’ve thought about this a lot in these few months since I quit my job several years ahead of when I had planned, taking a swan dive off a financial and professional cliff. And, in no small part thanks to all that Kitty and George Barnes poured into me, I have realized that I am rich beyond measure. That’s definitely not “rich” as in financial terms, but rather in the what-really-matters terms. I have come to realize that how full of gratitude I am for all that I do have, for all that others have given me, for all that I can – and should – give to others. So, Mom, in this Lenten season, I renew my endeavor to be like you in one more way, to live the gratitude I feel for my life, to enfold the power of thank you into all I endeavor to do. And, with God’s help, I will. Amen.

It was a strange, bizarre and uncharitable moment. What occasioned this moment was a joke about Jada Smith by comedian Chris Rock. Jada has a health condition, alopecia, which makes her lose hair. She has been battling this condition for years. I am not exactly sure if Chris knows about the health challenge that Jada is dealing with and for which she wears a bald head as I do. But he made a second joke about it. As you may well acknowledge, African American women and, in fact, close to one hundred percent of the women you know do not wear their heads bald. And so, for a woman to wear a bald head may not necessarily be about a fashion statement. A few weeks ago, I wrote about makeup and the fact that it is a billion-dollar industry. Well, it is the same with hair. Women, in general, and African American women, in particular, invest heavily in wigs or artificial hair because it is very tasking to change hairstyles as frequently as they want to. And so, to go bald is considered an extremity. Of the many women that I know, I can state for a fact that there is not one of them who walks around with a bald head. In my mind, a comedian is an artist who says what others cannot dare to say in public. A comedian is like a painter whose words are like artwork that speak for themselves and capture the emotions and challenges of people. A comedian is a poet whose words elicit deep laughter over human conditions, who turn difficult situations into laughter, who remind us that humor is a part of our lives we shouldn’t dare to lose, and who makes tolerable some of the heavy stuff that plagues the human condition. But the question for our consideration is, when does art cross a line? When does a health condition which can bring considerable sadness and pain to a family turns into a joke? For those of us who have had the experience of having loved ones deal with perennial health issues, we know how each member of a family becomes affected. More than that, we can tell of our helplessness in confronting health situations where we have absolutely no control, nor is any medication enough to deal with it. That sense of helplessness can be excruciatingly jarring. But is dealing with the helplessness of a health condition enough to generate the kind of anger that it did? Was that enough for Will to disregard his own body of work, audience, and all those watching around the world to attack Chris? I don’t think so. I don’t think so because two wrongs don’t make a right. There’s something about the strength of character which makes you resilient enough to take a blow - not for yourself, but for the other without hitting back. Indeed, he said later on that ‘Love makes you do crazy things.’ And he is absolutely right. Love makes you do crazy things, but love shouldn’t move any of us to hurt another person, irrespective of how justified we may feel. The crazy things that love make us do is directly opposite to violence. Love lends its hand to us so that we may use it to heal, guide, nurture, support, and even suffer for the sake of love itself. Love gifts us with the strength to take a punch with a smile because real strength isn’t in violence or revenge, real strength is in the examples that we set for ourselves, those we love, and those we don’t even love but are called to love, nonetheless. There’s this magazine that usually has pictures of these Hollywood stars doing ordinary things, living ordinary lives like going grocery shopping, watching the kids play sports, walking their dogs, or running... the sort of stuff that you do, and that I do. They caption it “Stars, they are just like us.” I think what the authors attempt to do with these pictures is to help us minimize our adoration or expectation of these so-called stars just so we can deal with some of the unflattering things that they may do. Remember, the people that we idolize carry within them some of the godawful character traits that are not terribly different from yours, or from mine. They are as broken as you and I. The gift of Lent, I believe, is not about how broken Will Smith, Chris Rock, you, and I may be, but it is about knowing that our brokenness is not enough to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. More to the point, it is purposefully because of this brokenness that makes Christ’s presence among us so important, especially during these unsettling times. Do I condemn the action of both men? Yes, I do. But do I condemn them? No, I do not. Condemning them is like condemning my own self, and the truth is I have condemned myself long enough that I am missing the beauty that lies within me and you. I have condemned myself long enough that I am missing the new life that is available to me and you. I have condemned myself long enough to wonder if God still abides with me or if He’s so long gone that I am only left to play with His shadow. Listen to Shakespeare’s Sonnet 98: From you have I been absent in the spring, When proud-pied April, dressed in all his trim, Hath put a spirit of youth in everything, That heavy Saturn laughed and leapt with him. Yet nor the lays of birds, nor the sweet smell Of different flow’rs in odor and in hue, Could make me any summer’s story tell, Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew. Nor did I wonder at the lily’s white, Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose; They were but sweet, but figures of delight, Drawn after you, you pattern of all those. Yet seemed it winter still, and, you away, As with your shadow I with these did play. Lent reminds me of "the slap" - the often callousness with which we approach life. But that is only half of the story. The full story involves the Easter story. Easter reminds me of how present God is. Easter reminds me of the beauty of life and the joy of new birth. Easter reminds me of the sweet smell of flowers that announces the arrival of spring, life, and beauty. Although I can hear the sound of the slap reverberating around the world, I can also hear the joyful noise of Easter morning drowning out the noise of our broken lives and world. And so this Holy Week and Easter, I invite you to join us in retelling not only the stories that capture our brokenness, but also the stories of a love that refuses to let us go - the love that seeks only our transformation and renewal. Manny.

Mark Your Calendars: 12:00 pm, Saturday, April 23rd, we’ll be meeting at the Robinson Nature Center to have lunch and conversation followed by a walk through their trails. We’ll meet at the outside tables near the Center’s front door. It’s free to use the trails, and if you want to visit the exhibits, it will cost $5. Bring your lunch, and join us for a spring walk! The guided Labyrinth walks continue every Saturday in Lent between 3:00 and 5:00 pm at St. John’s in Ellicott City. If you want to follow your meditative walk with a service, there is a 5:00 pm service in their Historic Chapel. We visited the site last fall; you can see our report about that experience here. Our trip to Seafarers has been changed from April 7th to April 21st, so you still have time to donate, if you’d like to. This will be our last donation trip before autumn. They are in need of men’s shirts, especially flannel shirts, sizes M-L, and are also in need of warm socks, sized men’s medium. As always, they are grateful for calendars, magazines and notecards. If you’d like to donate, the Seafarer’s bin is under the table in the tower room of New Brick. Hats On For Mother’s Day! Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 8th, and we will be keeping to our tradition of wearing hats to the Sunday services. We will try to capture a picture of ladies in hats after each service to include on our blog page. If you intend to attend the service online that day, you can still participate by sending Chris a picture of you in your hat for posting. Chris’s email address is communications@christchurchcolumbia.org. While we are on the subject of pictures, Chris has nicely volunteered to help us build out our WOCC blog with pictures from past events. If you’ve got some favorite pictures of past WOCC events you’d like to share, please send them to WOCC@christchurchcolumbia.org and identify the event and date or year they occurred. If you have some, a few sentences of your memories would help too. We’ll put them all together and work with Chris to share our stories! The next WOCC meeting takes place via Zoom on Monday, May 2nd at 1 p.m. If you’re a woman aged 18 or older, you’re already a member of the WOCC, so join us and see what’s happening! The Zoom details are in upcoming Christ Church communications, or email us at WOCC@christchurchcolumbia.org

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Emily welcomed me as I joined the choir at Christ Episcopal Church thirty years ago. She is a quiet person with a beautiful, soft singing voice and big heart. She probably doesn’t realize what an important role she has played in my life and in the lives of so many of us at Christ Church. Emily and I have sung together for 30 years as choir members, and also “auctioned” ourselves off in small singing groups to raise money for the church. In the small groups, we had lots of rehearsals and enjoyed getting to know each other much better. Emily was always willing to be adventurous in music, and helped us learn Hawaiian songs for a luau at Chuck and Paula's (with choreography) and ABBA music for one of Steve and Linda’s dinner parties. And as we ventured into gospel, she learned the harmonies which made the music so much richer. In the choir, she has always been one of the strong altos that new members like to sit next to so they can learn their part faster. On nights when she was absent, I’ve seen other altos look disappointed that they didn’t have her help there. Many years ago, Emily and I paired up for a church auction and donated our services to clean up Christmas decorations which we figured was a chore people would be willing to pay others to do for them. We got an evening out when our kids were small and enjoyed cleaning up at someone else’s house rather than our own. And it’s always fun to see the decoration ideas of other families. Emily has coordinated or provided meals for families at Christ Church who have had a baby or who are suffering an illness or loss. She’s done this work quietly and happily for nearly as long as she has sung in the choir. I bet the people who have benefited from her gifts of food and emotional support number in the thousands. And I bet many don’t know she was the gift giver. Emily began making her own cards over 20 years ago and many of us have purchased her cards or given them as gifts. She made little lights in beautiful paper lanterns for the choir members and reminded us that we should have more light in our lives during the dark times. She touches our lives through her art and her beauty. And she brings light to us. We have quietly supported each other with prayers, songs, conversations, and hugs through all the illnesses and losses of parents, struggles with life’s challenges and church interim phases, and feel the love of our friendship strengthen us. There are many at Christ Episcopal Church who also provide this type of support for others, and for me. Today I honor and thank Emily for the light she brings in my life. She brings Christ among us. ~J. D.