Dec. 18-Sunday-Ps 80 uses an image a god tending a vine with a gardener’s car. Does this image hold power for you? How could you use in in your life now? Where does it lack power for you?
Monday-As our faith matures we come to recognize Christ’s hidden presence everywhere.” That’s because a maturing faith is paradoxically childlike. It is marked by openness to new ideas, points of view, and experiences, all of which enable us to see again our God, who knows neither time, nor place, nor limitation.Br. John Braught
Tuesday-To restfully wander means to me that I am in a unique position to follow my heart and explore – just don’t commit to anything yet. My instructions are to listen. In other words, be at home where I am planted and enjoy what is at hand. This has meant several months in Arizona living with my Dad, joining a long overdue exercise regiment, hiking; signing up for a writing pilgrimage in Ireland; joining a labyrinth gathering in Indiana, and hearing dog assistance training. I don’t know why my heart leaps at these certain experiences. I often find myself saying, really? Dog assistance training? Or, a labyrinth gathering? I am realizing that I need to stop fighting the process and accept the strange formlessness of restful wandering. It is in relinquishing my will to see the situation as I want it to be that I will discover my own transformation and live at large as a monk in the world. Life coach Martha Beck writes about “the still and curious of the threshold . . . to sit with the nothingness until your fear fades.” That’s what I am working on. Abbey of the Arts
Wednesday-Pierre Teilhard de Chardin- .“Above all,” it begins, “trust in the slow work of God. We are quite naturally impatient in everything to reach the end without delay.”
Thursday-“Humility means remembering our human limitations. It is about learning that saying no is equally as important as saying yes.”--- Christine Valters Paintner, PhD
Friday-"Perhaps I am stronger than I think. Perhaps I am even afraid of my strength, and turn it against myself, thus making myself weak.Making myself secure. Making myself guilty.Perhaps I am most afraid of the strength of God in me.Perhaps I would rather be guilty and weak in myself, than strong in Him whom I cannot understand." (Thomas Merton)
Saturday-"God works through others and through me to lead me to a fuller and better life. I believe that God has big dreams for all of us and is constantly inviting us to choose freedom over fear, generosity over greed, compassion over comparison, and service over selfishness. As such, I’m sure that God is involved in all our decisions, no matter how seemingly trivial. But I’m also sure that God is there plotting to make me happy, so God is not there with a divine remote control but, instead, gently invites us to greater love." - Paul Brian Campbell, SJ
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