Sunday-Ps.97. Mother’s Day is a day of praise for those who bore us, those who helped to raise us. Today’s psalm is one of exultant praise to God for the heavens and for God’s help for those in right relation with god. When your thoughts and prayers turn to praise-what aspects of the Divine One come to mind?
Monday-If healing includes the ability to let go and forgive and have our relationships restored and all the brokenness mended--if healing is really about wholeness--then if we were asked if we wanted to be healed, we would have to say, "well, not quite yet." Do we want to be healed? Do we want to forgive everyone who has hurt us? Are we ready to humble ourselves and admit our own faults and ask for forgiveness from others? Are we ready to be healed in this way too? And if not, what do we still want to hang on to and what's our excuse?
Tuesday-It’s taken me years to realize that God loves us stones. Us stones, whom others ignore because we aren’t happy Christians on high holy days. Us stones, who judge ourselves harshly for not being who and what we wish we could be but can’t. Us stones, who still feed the children and get up and go to work even when we feel worthless. Us stones, who neglect the things we love and need. Us stones, who render cries of anguish rather than shouts of joy. Us stones, who survive sleepless nights and suicidal depths.Jesus saw the rocks that others ignored. In those times when I can’t move, when I am a stone, God is the earth upon which I rest. I believe that Jesus sees my immobile, non-palm-waving, stone life as a testimony.
Wednesday-"David was a multi-faceted character. Unlike the hagiographies of saints that tend to leave out the darker aspects of their personalities, the Hebrew scriptures offer us a wide array of figures with their shadows and struggles, as well as triumphs and victories. I appreciate reading about the full spectrum of human experience in these scripture stories." --- Christine Valters Paintner, PhD How does it make you feel when you realize that many, if not all, scriptural figures, along with the saints and mystics, together form a communion of saints and sinners, each one a human being just like you and me?
Thursday-“The church is constituted as a new people who have been gathered from the nations to remind the world that we are in fact one people. Gathering, therefore, is an eschatological act as it is the foretaste of the unity of the communion of the saints.” ― Stanley Hauerwas,
Friday-“I am old, Gandalf. I don't look it, but I am beginning to feel it in my heart of hearts. Well-preserved indeed! Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean: like butter that has been scraped over too much bread. That can't be right. I need a change, or something.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien
Saturday-Ultima Thule! Utmost Isle!Here in thy harbors for a while/ We lower our sails; a while we rest/ From the unending, endless quest.” ― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
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