week of June 24 relfections

Sunday-June 24 Ps. 9:9-20-+is a song of the downtrodden, biblical blues.It expresses the deep frustration of being put down.How do you manage such thoughts and feelings in your spiritual life?

Monday-Integrity has the same root as the words integral and integrated: integritas, which means wholeness and soundness.  To act with integrity means to always be moving toward wholeness and not feeling divided; this is the same meaning as the root of the word monk.  The desert calls us to a singleness of heart and to live from this commitment.” -- Christine Valters Paintner

Tuesday-This is not the power that controls, dictates, and commands. It is the power that heals, reconciles, and unites. It is the power of the Spirit. It is this power of the divine Spirit that Jesus wants to give us. The Spirit indeed empowers us and allows us to be healing presences. When we are filled with that Spirit, we cannot be other than healers. Nouwen?

Wednesday-Pres. Outlook-From 2 Cor. How do we regard no one from a human point of view? How do we walk by faith and not by sight? Notice beauty and signs of hope. Pause to give thanks for them.Why does Jesus talk and teach in parables? Are there ways we could do likewise?When have you been surprised by someone or something and realized that there was more than what you initially saw, thought or assumed?

Thursday- Our self-centeredness must be reckoned for the enemy it is. God cannot squeeze into a self-centered heart.Source: So Who’s Afraid of Birthdays

Friday-You will no longer feel the need to measure up to anything or anyone, because your love for God, to whom you belong, will make you stand firm.…Happy and secure are those who have given their whole heart to God. How simple this is if we but look to Jesus, God’s Son and our brother, whose pure heart reaches out to us.Source: The God Who Heals

Saturday-"The early monks longed, as most of us do, to live in a way that was unburdened by anxiety and fear. All of their spiritual practices were in service to this ultimate goal. They longed to be healed of the internal divisions that kept them from seeing the abundant grace freely offered moment by moment which could be seen by gazing on the icon of creation. To live in paradise in the midst of this world means to see things differently which only comes through practice.” -- Christine Valters Paintner