Sunday-Ps. 72 is a source for the transformation of Magi into kings. for 2015, it also has relevance for the standard by which we are to regard political action. It is attributed to solomon, so the wealth and power make sense out of the description of his reign as the apex of Israelite power. How do you judge political action, and does it square with the biblical conception? Should it?
Monday-Solitude, stillness and being present to the moment have been my focus for 2014. Just last night, I was sitting in my car after a holiday gathering downtown and once again was struck by how the holy is everywhere. The neon lights of the city became jewels in the mist of my windows, rivulets casting shadow on the altar of my dashboard. Passing cars became the sounds of ocean waves as they processed down the wet streets. I became lost in the wonder of the moment, reflected in the ordinary. My heart is full.
Tuesday-Thomas Merton-My chief care should not be to find pleasure or success, health or life or money or rest or even things like virtue and wisdom - still less their opposites, pain, failure, sickness, death. But in all that happens, my one desire and my one joy should be to know: 'Here is the thing that God has willed for me. In this (God's) love is found, and in accepting this I can give back (God's) love to (God) and give myself with it to (God).1
Wednesday- Not only does the false self submit itself to the relentless judgment of the world, it engages in the judgment of others. The urge to correct, chastise, rank and judge others is a compulsion of the false self, an expression of the spirit of the Pharisee or the Puritan, though sometimes writ small in its petty pursuit of one-upmanship, but no less corrosive to the soul for its smallness. It is none other than Jesus who calls into question the world's standards of success and even righteousness.
Thursday-God is the ultimate with," says a Jewish scholar. When Moses tells God he feels unworthy to go to his people, God says, "I will be with you" (Exodus 3:12). This with-ness of God is especially significant for Christians because it is fulfilled the very title for Jesus: "'...and they shall name him Emmanuel, 'which means God-is-with-us" (Matthew 1:23 // Isaiah 7:14).Kent Ira Groff
Friday-"I think we need a new word -'comjoyment' -as a companion to "compassion" to remind us that our greatest gift to the world may be in sharing what gives us the greatest joy."-- Sam Keen in Learning to Fly
Saturday-”Prayer is nothing else than being on terms of friendship with God."— St. Teresa of Avila
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