Sunday, June 25, 2017

June 25 reflections

June 25-Sunday-Ps.13 ( I flipped Sundays) is the standard form of the lament prayer.Some consider these whiny prayers, but I remind us that Jesus quoted one, Ps. 22, at the cross. Soem of us need to be able to pour out our complaints,  and God always hears our cries. Consider using this as a model prayer and adapt it to your own needs.

Monday-The soul sharpened on the stone of sacred texts finds the timeless in the time... it knows beyond any doubt that all humanity stands before God troubled by their own limitations and failings whatever side of whatever issue they may stand on. Such soul whetting does not happen quickly but only gradually over a lifetime. Psalms prayed daily become a part of who we are only over the course of long years...wisdom acquired through the irony of Ecclesiastes or the Sermon on the Mount does not yield to quick acquisition. The Epistles of the New Testament provide a chorus that is as stirring in their frequent dissonance as in their harmonies, and superficial readings will not reveal meaning within either.The soul text-sharpened is ready for the moment in which God places us. Michael Jinkins

Tuesday- “Help" is a prayer that is always answered. It doesn't matter how you pray--with your head bowed in silence, or crying out in grief, or dancing. Churches are good for prayer, but so are garages and cars and mountains and showers and dance floors. Years ago I wrote an essay that began, "Some people think that God is in the details, but I have come to believe that God is in the bathroom.” ― Anne Lamott, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith


Thursday-David Moe-Burmese saying-seek education while you are young, seek money while you are adults, seek God while you are elders, (this third one implies that spiritual journey of growth and connecting with God continues)

Friday-“The process of art-making or prayer becomes a journey of discovery, where we open ourselves to what is being revealed moment by moment, rather than what we hope or expect to see.” --- Christine Valters Paintner

Saturday-from Hannah Coulter novel-The room of love is another world. You go there wearing no watch, watching no clock. It is the world without end, so small that two people can hold it in their arms, and yet it is bigger than worlds on worlds, for it contains the longing of all things to be together, and to be at rest together. You come together to the day's end, weary and sore, troubled and afraid. You take it all into your arms, it goes away and there you are where giving and taking are the same, and you live a little while entirely in a gift. The words have all been said, all permissions given, and you are free in the place that is the two of you together



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