Sunday-Ps.89:2-37-this psalm ends one of the Psalms sections. It fits our reading of the promise made to the house of David. It includes the conditional support of god, if the kings follow the ways of God. when do you see the love of god as conditional or as unconditional?
Monday-Southern Georgia writer Flannery O'Connor used the phrase "the Habit of Art" to describe seeing the Divine permeating every sphere of life, often in the form of "turbulent grace" that throws you off balance.
Tuesday-”without any work to claim when people asked me “what do you do?”, I was often in emotional pain as well over the loss of an identity. I didn’t look sick and often came judgment from others, or inner judgment about why I wasn’t trying harder. Many were supportive, but others offered unwelcome advice or explanations about how I wasn’t thinking the right thoughts. Dr. Joan Borsyenko describes this as “new age fundamentalism.” A great gift arrived to me one day at church, when a woman asked me that dreaded question. I responded about taking time for healing and she said, “oh, you’re on a sabbatical.” And with that phrase came a wave of relief, a connection to ancient wisdom about our need at times for deep restoration.
Wednesday- Christ is our peace, not the thing that divides us, rather that which eliminates division and allows us to see the broken humanity that is also in ourselves and not just those who have not confessed his holy name. Through his eyes we are all unworthy, and yet beloved; broken, but not yet beyond redemption. When our eyes have such sight we can approach those outside of our fellowship as brothers and sisters instead of as others who must be conformed to us in order to find welcome. Structural Christ, foundation and cornerstone of all blessing and hope, have mercy upon us. We revel in our freedom and security so much that we forget that while others may stand on softer ground, that is not their failing but ours in neglecting to draw them to the solid rock. Strengthen our arms to reach out in love alone to the strangers in our midst. Amen.R. Tim Carnahan
Thursday-Speak when you are angry - and you'll make the best speech you'll ever regret.Laurence J. Peter
Friday-“Besieged is how most people feel most of the time… To feel crowded, set upon, blocked by circumstances, in defeat or victory, is…the daily experience of most human beings in most contemporary societies…. Besieged as we are, little wonder that men and women alternate between the dream of a place apart, untouched by the world and then wanting to be wanted again in that aloneness. Besieged or left alone, we seem to live best at the crossroad between irretrievable aloneness and irretrievable belonging…
Saturday-"Silence is like a river of grace inviting us to leap unafraid into its beckoning depths. It is dark and mysterious in the waters of grace. Yet in the silent darkness we are given new eyes. In the heart of the divine we can see more clearly who we are. We are renewed and cleansed in this river of silence. There are those among you who fear the Great Silence. It is a foreign land to you. Sometimes it is good to leap into the unknown. Practice leaping." --Macrina, taken from Seven Sacred Pauses.
No comments:
Post a Comment