Thoughts for Week of Sept. 24

Sunday Sept. 24-Ps 105 returns from a couple of sundays ago, but this time with its ending for today:37-45. What precedes it is an  antithesis of Gen. 1, reversals of nature toward Egypt. For the freed ones, creation opens its arms in abundance in the most unlikely place of the desert. V. 43 has the people brought out with joy, with singing. When have you felt so delivered?

Monday-“Ritual practice keeps us doing what we should be doing (praying, working, being at table with our families, being polite) even when our feelings aren’t always onside. We need to do certain things not because we always feel like doing them, but because it’s right to do them.” - Ron Rolheiser

Tuesday-I will board the ship that shows all humankind the way to the other shore: to the kingdom of peace, justice, and perfect love. We need people who dare to set the course for this other shore, who dare to live in accordance with the ways of the land on the other side.

Wednesday-The winds that sweep through history and your life are but eddies and currents of the breath of new creation." --Robert Jenson

Thursday-Teilhard de Chardin says, grace is “the seed of resurrection” sown in our nature.

Friday-Karl Barth-God surrounds us... who is before, above, and after, and thence also with us in history: the locus of our existence. Humanity’s evil past is not merely crossed out because of its irrelevancy. Rather, it is in the good care of God.

Saturday-For Benedict, the act of earning one’s daily food and shelter was seen as an honorable task,m even a holy gift.  Not all work feels meaningful – some of it may feel more like drudgery.  And not everything that is considered work is paid labor.  Even if we have a job we love, we still need to do dishes and laundry and clean the bathroom.  Sometimes we have work we dread and still have to come home to the task of daily living.  Some of us take care of children or aging parents as full-time work or in addition to our day jobs. Our daily work be a place on inner transformation.  The call of the monk is to bring absolute attention to the work at hand.”--- Christine Valters Paintner, PhD