Sunday-Ps.147- links the overweening power of the Creator with the tender capacity to help the brokenhearted and with the specific knowledge of “naming” the individual stars. God then sees the forest and the trees. How has your broken heart be healed? When have you felt God sustaining you?
Monday-"My Life Flows On in Endless Song," My life flows on in endless song;above earth's lamentation,I catch the sweet, though far-off hymn that hails a new creation.Refrain:No storm can shake my inmost calm/while to that Rock I'm clinging./Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth,how can I keep from singing?Through all the tumult and the strife,/I hear that music ringing./It finds an echo in my soul./How can I keep from singing? Refrain/What though my joys and comforts die?/The Lord my Savior liveth./What though the darkness gather round?/Songs in the night he giveth. Refrain/The peace of Christ makes fresh my heart,/a fountain ever springing!/All things are mine since I am his!/How can I keep from singing? Martin Luther wrote, "Next to the word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world. It controls our hearts and minds and spirits." In this season of the church year,what are we going to do? We are going to sing: sometimes beautifully, sometimes poorly, sometimes happily and sometimes sadly, but we will sing. Silence is contrary to all that we know and feel. From God Pause
Tuesday-"Do not depend on the hope of results...you may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results, but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself...gradually you struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people...In the end, it is the reality of personal relationships that saves everything." (Thomas Merton)
Wednesday-You might simplify the "examen" of Ignatius of Loyola, a gentle practice of noticing:A gift of the day that is past, struggle of the day that is past,invitation for the day ahead...I say of spiritual practices: "never obligation--only invitation." Kent ira Groff
Thursday- Is. 40”21-31-In the Small Catechism we confess: "I believe God has created me together with all that exists ... " Read Isaiah's questions aloud and ponder your creator and the creation. Have you not known? O God, we affirm that you have given us our bodies and souls, our senses, reason and all our mental faculties. May we use them to serve your people and to preserve your good creation. Amen.Robert Brusic
Friday- I am interested in relationship advice from the Gottman Institute-here are some tips on building togetherness: Ask “How are you?” in a way that shows that you really want to know-Listen to stories and jokes, even when you’ve heard them before-Say thank you for favors, invitations to go Invite out for coffee, dinner, a movie -Offer compliments-Let them off the hook when they say “I can’t do it, I’m exhausted” Ask for help Let them help you- Collaborate on projects Celebrate each other’s successes
Saturday-The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution no to twist them to fit our own image. If in loving them we do not love what they are, but only their potential likeness to ourselves, then we do not love them: we only love the reflection of ourselves we find in them.— Thomas Merton, No Man is an Island
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