Week of July 2 reflections

Sunday-July 2-Ps.86 is a fine, humble prayer. It speaks from a lowly state of mind-the psalm seeks a “gladdened heart.” At the same time, it call s on the character of God to act in a way consonant with those divine attributes of steadfast love and helpfulness. The psalter gives us models to pray when down, even depressed.

Monday- “It is lovely to meet an old person whose face is deeply lined, a face that has been deeply inhabited, to look in the eyes and find light there.” ― John O'Donohue

Tuesday-Thomas Merton-The importance of detachment from things, the importance of poverty, is that we are supposed to be free from things that we might prefer to people. Wherever things have become more important than people, we are in trouble. That is the crux of the whole matter.

Wednesday-I invite this for any physical or spiritual disciplines: If I can't take my normal walk, I take a mini-walk to keep the pattern going. If I can't take 20 minutes for centering prayer, I take two minutes. I say:Never obligation, only invitation. Listen to Leonard Cohen:  Ring the bells that still can ring,Forget the perfect offering,There is a crack in everything:  That's how the light gets in.

Thursday-You shall love the Lord your God" become in the end less a command than a promise. And the promise is that, yes, on the weary feet of faith and the fragile wings of hope, we will come to love him at last as from the first he has loved us—loved us even in the wilderness, especially in the wilderness, because he has been in the wilderness with us. He has been in the wilderness for us. He has been acquainted with our grief. And, loving him, we will come at last to love each other too so that, in the end, the name taped on every door will be the name of the one we love.

friday-One lives 'the life of the new creation in which the right relation to all the rest of God’s creatures is fully restored.' In part we do this by practicing paradise, and remembering that there is what Merton calls a 'hidden wholeness' which is present to us if we only have eyes to see the greening power alive in the world.”--- Christine Valters Paintner\

Saturday-Scott Colglazier-Paul is suggesting that there is an inner presence that endures with us in the midst of all our losses. Even though we tend to think of Christ as a person, a passage like this reminds us that Christ transcends the limitations of personhood and morphs into energy, influence and presence. This means that no matter how much the world is changing on the outside - forever dying and rising - and no matter what it does to us on the inside of our psyches - there is a presence of love, compassion and transformation that continues with us.