Week of April 12 quotes

Sunday-Ps.133 is a great short blessing. Prayers need not be long. Some of our most heartfelt prayers are short. Please consider writing a similar prayer in your own words. Monday- Isaiah 42:1-9. I need to pay attention to sources.Thankfully this great announcement in the book of Isaiah is up front with its source: "Who says?" God says! God, the Lord, the Creator, the Heaven-Stretcher, the Earth-Spreader—not just some smooth-talking schmo, but the one with demonstrated prowess in showing compassion, credible power to not grow faint and the verified practice of bringing justice—a reliable source, that's who.Trey Daum Tuesday-We don't have to be anxious that the larger our understanding grows, the smaller God will become. God is not a delicate fabric we must keep out of the hot water of human inquiry. God is strong enough and durable enough never to be threatened by the increase of our knowledge and the expansiveness of our curiosity.. The expansion of human wisdom leads to deeper awe of God not to lessened faith.Michael Jinkins Wednesday-If you're not enjoying your life, you're missing one of the main reasons God created you. (Leonard Sweet) Thursday-"Eat. Drink. Remember who I am.Eat. Drink. Remember who I am So you can remember who you are.Eat. Drink. Remember who I am So you can remember who you are And tell the theirs.Eat. Drink. Remember who I am So you can remember who you are And tell the others so that All God's people can live in communion… Holy Communion." ( by Ann Weems from "Kneeling in Jerusalem") Friday-Anne Lamott retells a classic Hasidic story that has stuck in my mind. It is about a rabbi who always told his people "that if they studied the Torah, it would put Scripture on their hearts." One of the rabbi's people asked him, "Why on our hearts, and not in them?"  He answered, "Only God can put Scripture inside. But reading sacred text can put it on your hearts, and then when your hearts break, the holy words will fall inside."1Lamott's comments remind me of Leonard Cohen's wise observation that the light gets into our lives through the cracks in them. Saturday-The call of Easter is this simple invitation: to step forth across the threshold, to release all you thought you know, to hold your palms open, to say yes to what comes.Do not hold too tightly to what you think the outcome should be. Let yourself be surprised. Release your expectations and be turned inside out. It is in the places of profound unknowing that we let ourselves enter into Mystery. The resurrected life is at heart a great and mysterious process. It is not something we can understand on logical terms, it is only something we can live into and experience.