Week of Oct. 5 spiritual points

Sunday-Ps 19 is one of the great  prayers that links creation to our lives. In both cases, if we see utter disorder, we do not see God’s order. While we have made great strides in public ethics, we have a long way to go to match the remarkable advances in understanding God's handiwork  through science. Monday- Is. 5:1-7 This text also invites the church today to wonder what walls or hedges we hide behind and what boundaries God is removing, so that our lives as God's people may embody righteousness and justice in our relationships with others in our own neighborhoods. .Julianne Barlow (Koivisto) Tuesday-Abbey of the Arts- Is. 48:6-7-  In the Christian contemplative tradition, we are invited to rest more deeply in the Great Mystery, to lay aside our images and symbols, and let the divine current carry us deeper, without knowing where, only to trust the impulse within to follow a longing... wisdom of embracing a season of unknowing, to wrest from their grip the idols of certainty and security.  Of the new things happening you have known nothing until this moment. Wednesday-Hope and fear, laughter and tears have been part of our journey. Joy and pain, longing and doubt meet on the pathway.Often we do not believe, O God,and sometimes we doubt that your promises can be true. Grant us and our world the freedom to laugh, the courage to cry, the heart to be open and the faith to believe.-from Celtic Treasure: Daily Scripture and Prayer. . Thursday-The Lord plays and diverts Himself in the garden of His creation, and if we could let go of our own obsession with what we think is the meaning of it all, we might be able to hear His call and follow Him in His mysterious, cosmic dance.... Indeed we are in the midst of it, and it is in the midst of us, for it beats in our very blood, whether we want it to or not.Yet the fact remains that we are invited to forget ourselves on purpose, cast our awful solemnity to the winds and join in the general dance. Thomas Merton Friday-This Is My My Father’s World is a fine hymn that holds some deep thought.Please read the lyric and look for the changes in tone and thought as it moves. Hymns provide  an additional treasure trove of contemporary psalmody in our devotional life. Saturday-According to Aelred…     Jesus Christ is the silent partner in every real human friendship. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ shares with us, in and through the bonds of friendship, the joy that is the love of God. Not only is such "spiritual friendship" a love that never ends, it is a love that is divine because ultimately it flows from God and returns to God. This means, of course, that a betrayal of friendship is not merely a social faux pas. It is not an unfortunate lapse about which we may "feel very bad." It constitutes a loss that shatters something of eternal significance in us.