Week of July 1 Readings

Sunday-Ps.130 recurs in the lectionary.It links sin to the depths of our experience, but it need not be a consequence of sin, but of life itself. How doe sprayer help you to plumb the depths of the self?

Monday-But what God has put in our power ...is largely to be secured by our being kind to them.…I wonder why it is that we are not all kinder than we are. How much the world needs it. How easily it is done. How instantaneously it acts. How infallibly it is remembered.Source: The Greatest Thing in the World

Tuesday-Abba is a very intimate word. The best translation for it is: "Daddy." The word Abba expresses trust, safety, confidence, belonging, and most of all intimacy. It does not have the connotation of authority, power, and control, that the word Father often evokes. On the contrary, Abba implies an embracing and nurturing love. This love includes and infinitely transcends all the love that comes to us from our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, spouses, and lovers. It is the gift of the Spirit.Henri Nouwen Wednesday-Do you see stress as an enemy or as your friend? Here lies the key as to whether it deepens you or demeans you: Look for inklings of personal resurrection. With Parkinson's diagnosis, I have scads of occasions to practice resilience. Resilience creates compassion: When I mess up, I tell myself: Practice compassion for yourself--you'll be in practice for someone else who will surely need it. Ira Kent Groff Thursday-in this taste of paradise/ where rest becomes luminous/ and play a prayer of gratitude, /even the stones sing /of a different time, /where burden is lifted and eternity endures. Abbey of the arts on sabbath Friday-We are a spiritually impoverished generation; we search in all the places the Spirit ever flowed in the hope of finding water. And that is a valid impulse. For if the Spirit is living and never dies, it must still be present wherever it once was active.…It is like a small but carefully tended spark, ready to flare, glow, and burst into flame the moment it feels the first enkindling breath.Edith Stein Saturday-The word must become flesh, but the flesh also must become word. It is not enough for us, as human beings, just to live..If we do not speak what we are living, our lives lose their vitality and creativity. When we see a beautiful view, we search for words to express what we are seeing...When we are sorrowful or in great pain, we need to talk about it. When we are surprised by joy, we want to announce it!Through the word, we appropriate and internalize what we are living. The word makes our experience truly human.