Relective Pieces for week of Sept. 10

Sunday-Sept. 10-Ps.149-the Psalms are a clearly edited work. Different sections close with praise, and the entire psalter does so with the last prayers.  I love the festive nature of v. 3-4 but quake at the thirst for vengeance that follows. This could be a fine example of placing our lesser selves safely in prayer instead of direct action.

Monday-"As artists of life, the gatekeeper is our ally, an essential companion. We may find ourselves saying yes to so many other commitments that we never have time for our true passion. We may do this in an unconscious attempt to avoid the thing which really calls us (and really scares us) or we may simply be trying to please everyone else and forgetting about our own needs."--- Christine Valters Paintner,

Tuesday-Mother Teresa-Try to feel the need for prayer often during the day, and take the trouble to pray. Prayer makes the heart large enough until it can contain God’s gift of himself. Ask and seek, and your heart will grow big enough to receive him, and keep him as your own.

Wednesday-Wendell Berry-We must learn to acknowledge that the creation is full of mystery; we will never entirely understand it. We must abandon arrogance and stand in awe. We must recover the sense of the majesty of creation, and the ability to be worshipful in its presence. For I do not doubt that it is only on the condition of humility and reverence before the world that our species will be able to remain in it.

Thursday-Thoughts on Ps. 10What are the ways I deceive myself? What are the places of opposition within my own heart? How do I "murder" my own innocence? Or take advantage of that which feels helpless within? How do I fuel my own self-destruction?

I am discovering the psalms as a beautiful gateway of awareness into my own inner

multitude.Abby of the Arts

Friday-Henri J. M. Nouwen-We have been called to be fruitful – not successful, not productive, not accomplished. Success comes from strength, stress, and human effort. Fruitfulness comes from vulnerability and the admission of our own weakness.

Saturday-God does not love us if we change; God loves us so that we can change. Only love—not duress, guilt, any form of shunning, or social pressure—effects true inner transformation." Richard Rohr