Letter from Amy: March 4, 2026
- Amy Rowe
- Mar 4
- 3 min read
Dear friends,
On Sunday morning, in response to the unsettling news of strikes in Iran, we began our service with an additional prayer for peace. I am always grateful for these old prayers that carry us even when we can't yet form prayers of our own. This is the prayer from Sunday, taken from the Occasional Prayers section of the Book of Common Prayer:
Eternal God, in whose perfect kingdom no sword is drawn but the sword of righteousness, no strength known but the strength of love: So mightily spread abroad your Spirit, that all peoples may be gathered under the banner of the Prince of Peace; to whom be dominion and glory, now and for ever. Amen.
I also turn to familiar poems when I'm at a loss for words, and on Sunday I pulled out my old Wendell Berry volume and turned to this favorite. Berry wrote this during the Tet Offensive of the Vietnam War.
February 2, 1968
by Wendell Berry
In the dark of the moon, in flying snow, in the dead of winter,
war spreading, families dying, the world in danger,
I walk the rocky hillside, sowing clover.
I love the small hopefulness of this poem. When the world is frightening, we walk and sow. Our path is sloped and rocky, dark and cold. Our seeds are simple, stubborn clover; healing the soil for generations, drawing bees and butterflies, and tenaciously pushing forth fragrant new life in the most inhospitable conditions.
This poem echoes our scriptures from Sunday, which showed people walking their own "rocky hillside" — people living vulnerably in a hostile world. Yet in that world (which is our world), they (and we) encounter the God who is giving himself in love at every moment. In response to this self-giving God, we pray the second step of the Examen: "thank you."
On Sunday we continued our Lenten series on the Examen, and you can listen to Sunday's sermon here. You can read more about the Examen, including resource suggestions, in last week's letter. And below is a song that captures the essence of Sunday's sermon and the heart of the Examen; the lyrics come from a quote bythe medieval theologian Meister Eckhart:
We sang this song at Sunday night's benefit concert for Restoration Immigration Legal Aid (RILA), our our Lent outreach partner. It was a beautiful, moving night celebrating the amazing work of RILA over the past 10 years, grieving the hardships faced by our immigrant neighbors, and praying for RILA's faithful staff and volunteers as they continue to sow seeds of justice on an increasingly rocky hillside.
I was so encouraged to see at least a couple dozen Incarnation folks at Sunday's concert! It's a privilege to pastor a church that takes seriously Jesus' instruction to welcome the stranger. We will continue to pray for RILA over the course of Lent, and we're taking up a special offering throughout the season. This is a simple way to practice the traditional Lenten discipline of almsgiving; you can give to this Lent Offering for RILA here.
How is your Lent going? How's the practice of the Examen landing for you? I'd love to hear from you.
With love,
Amy
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