knitternun

Wednesday, January 31, 2007

31/01/07 week of Epiphany 4

[Please remember this is a sort of "menu" from which to select. No one has to pray it all]

Collect

Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Today's Scripture http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/

Ps 72; 119:73-96; Isa 54:1-10(11-17); Gal 4:21-31; Mark 8:11-26
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From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm

Mark 8:11-26. "I can see people, but they look like trees, walking."

I like this story because the healing does not immediately take. This is unprecedented in Mark, or in any of the gospels for that matter. Once again Jesus heals by touch, this time rubbing the blind man's eyes with saliva, and laying hands on him. But to our surprise (and, who knows?--perhaps to Jesus' surprise as well) the healing is only half successful at first: "I can see people," the man says in wonder, "but they look like trees, walking." Jesus has to touch his eyes again; and only then, as the man looks intently, is his sight restored. "He saw everything clearly." What a wonderful thing for Mark to say, and what a wonderful story, so human and humane at once. I like to think the man's partial vision is what Paul talked about when he said that in this life we see but we see as in a mirror, darkly. Then when Jesus touches him again, the face of Jesus must be the first face he sees--or, to paraphrase Paul again, he sees God "face to face." I like to think he laughed out loud with delight at such a sight. And I like to think that Jesus laughed with him.
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Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm

January 31 is a feria, which means "free day". Today let us reflect on this new Psalm:

By Micahel Anne, Haywood, 2007

My God, how like a mother you are,
that you have known and named and loved us
even before we were born.
Like a mother you have nurtured us, every one,
from your own body: your substance, your essence,
making us all related through our birth in your love.
Namasté, we greet each other,
greeting that of God which is in every creature and creation.

You care for us most lovingly,
preparing for us in the arms of the natural world
a bounty of all that we need to survive;
surrounding us with loving friends and family,
wise leaders (although some become so foolish in the flush of power --
forgive them, and us that we do not oppose their folly),
and prophets who speak your word,
even if we do give them a hard time for their efforts.

I have seen your love and mercy,
I have heard your voice,
I have felt your touch
and smelled your earthy presence beside me.
Yet fearful and ashamed of my childish faults,
I have turned away and hidden my face
in my own preoccupations.
I have denied your goodness by refusing it.
I have diluted your love with my worries and preoccupations.
I have stupidly put myself in the forefront of my thoughts.

Save me from my multitude of peccadilloes,
Let me not worship them by giving them my time and energy.
Show me that you can accept and use my flaws and weaknesses
just as easily as you can use my strengths and talents.
Now that's a humbling thought!

God our mother, hold us close
when we wake and as we sleep.
Feed us generously --
with the bread and fish you have provided
and which now you have received from our hands
and blessed and multiplied --
that we might share in your life by caring for one another.
Take us by the hand and walk with us,
for we know that you will take us
farther than we have ever imagined.

Selah. And amen.

her blog:
http://spoorofthestarfish.blogspot.com/2006/04/hello-theologian.html
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Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Manchester (York, England)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
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Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php

In giving us His Son, His only Word (for He possesses no other), God spoke everything to us at once in this sole Word - and He has no more to say ... because what He spoke before to the prophets in parts, He has now spoken all at once by giving us the All who is His Son.
St John of the Cross
Romances
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Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html

On Humility

An old man was asked, "What is humility?" and he said in reply, "Humility is a great work, and a work of God. The way of humility is to undertake bodily labour and believe yourself a sinner and make yourself subject to all." Then a brother said, "What does it mean, to be subject to all?" The old man answered, "To be subject to all is not to give your attention to the sins of others but always to give your attention to your own sins and to pray without ceasing to God."

An old man said, "Every time a thought of superiority or vanity moves you, examine your conscience to see if you have kept all the commandments, whether you love your enemies, whether you consider yourself to be an unprofitable servant and the greatest sinner of all. Even so, do not pretend to great ideas as though you were perfectly right, for that thought destroys everything."
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Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/

Due to technical difficulties, this is not available today.
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From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:
There is no official Principle for Day 31. So having followed the
Principles through the last thirty days, let us not forget to have a
little leisure and fun too.

Merciful God, you have made Your church rich through the poverty of
blessed Francis: help us like him, not to trust in earthly things, but
to seek Your heavenly gifts through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
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Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html

"God Has No Grandchildren"

Judges 2:10 (JB) says: "When that generation too had been gathered to its fathers, another generation followed it which knew neither Yahweh nor the deeds that he had done for the sake of Israel." They had forgotten. We must become children of God. Every generation has to be Converted anew. Each generation has to be called into God's life to know the fidelity of God, to step out, and to base their life on the word of God. It's not enough to say that my mother was Catholic, my father was Christian. Until you come to that moment in your life when you choose the God you will serve, you have not begun to experience conversion. The reason that the word of the Lord does not speak to our people is because, most simply, they have never been converted. Many church-goers are in fact baptized pagans. Our parent's faith is not ours until we walk the journey ourselves. God has no grandchildren.

from The Great Themes of Scripture
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From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.
http://www.artsci.villanova.edu/dsteelman/tradition/sources.html

How sublime the humility of God the most high!

Our exalted Savior lost nothing by his humility, but we gained very much. By it the Most High was not lowered, but the lowly were exalted. In order to carry out perfectly the work of our redemption, the Son of God, Creator of all flesh, condescended to be born of the Virgin's flesh in the way all true flesh is born.

God, our Maker, became a real human being born of a human being. He was wrapped in swaddling bands, confined in a narrow manger, circumcised on the eighth day, and carried by human hands to his own temple.

How gracious is the kindliness of God! How sublime the humility of God most high! As a tiny baby he was nursed by his mother, he the boundless God who had created her. As a little child he was carried to his own temple by his parents, he the great God who was prayed to in that temple by his holy people. And he also ordained the offering of a sacrifice for himself, he who had come sinless to be immolated for our betrayals. Reflect, then, on what you owe to the Most High who was humbled for your sake, your exalted Creator and humbled Redeemer.

Fulgentius of Ruspe, (468 - 533), bishop of Ruspe in northern Africa, was a faithful disciple of Augustine and the best theologian of his time.
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Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/

Chapter 7: On Humility

The third degree of humility is that a person
for love of God
submit himself to his Superior in all obedience,
imitating the Lord, of whom the Apostle says,
"He became obedient even unto death."

Commentary: http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html

It is so simple, so simplistic, to argue that we live for the God we do not see when we reject the obligations we do see. Benedictine spirituality does not allow for the fantasy. Benedict argues that the third rung on the ladder of humility is the ability to submit ourselves to the wisdom of another. We are not the last word, the final answer, the clearest insight into anything. We have one word among many to contribute to the mosaic of life, one answer of many answers, one insight out of multiple perspectives. Humility lies in learning to listen to the words, directions and insights of the one who is a voice of Christ for me now. To stubbornly resist the challenges of people who have a right to lay claim to us and an obligation to do good by us--parents, spouses, teachers, supervisors--is a dangerous excursion into arrogance and a denial of the very relationships that are the stuff of which our sanctity is made.

Rungs one and two call for contemplative consciousness. Rung three brings us face to face with our struggle for power. It makes us face an authority outside of ourselves. But once I am able to do that, then there is no end to how high I might rise, how deep I might grow.
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Prayer of Mother Teresa

Dear Jesus, help us to spread your fragrance
everywhere we go.
Flood our souls with your spirit and life.
Penetrate and possess our whole being so utterly
that our lives may only be a radiance of yours.
Shine through us and be so in us
that every soul we come in contact with
may feel your presence in our soul.
Let them look up and see no longer us, but only Jesus.
Stay with us and then we shall begin to shine as you shine,
so to shine as to be light to others.
The light, O Jesus, will be all from you.
None of it will be ours.
It will be you shining on others through us.
Let us thus praise you in the way you love best
by shining on those around us.
Let us preach you without preaching,
not by words, but by our example;
by the catching force -
the sympathetic influence of what we do,
the evident fullness of the love our hearts bear to you.
Amen
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Thomas Merton made the following entry in his journals on January 31, 1965, his 50th birthday (he had been living full-time in his hermitage since August 15, 1965)

Special Reflection for January 31, 2007

“When I enter my house, I shall find rest with her, for nothing is bitter in her company; when life is shared with her there is no pain, nothing but pleasure and joy (Wisdom 8:16).”

I can imagine no greater cause for gratitude on my fiftieth birthday than that on it I wake up in a hermitage!..Last night, before going to bed, realized what solitude really means: when the ropes are cast off and the skiff is no longer tied to land but heads out to sea without ties, without restraints! Not the sea of passion but, on the contrary, the sea of purity and love that is without care. (..Through the cold and the darkness I hear the Angelus ringing at the monastery.) The beautiful jeweled shining of honey in the lamplight. Festival!
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Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Universalism and Christianity

I know there is an approach here in the USA that one needs to be open
to all options.That is considered more sophisticated and cool. One of
the effect this has had on spirituality is that so many flit from this
to that and over there and under that, without ever going any deeper
than superficially because something else has come along. The idea of
sinking deep and deeper into one thing gets laughed at.

What saddens me is that for so many Christians around me, they find
Jesus insufficient. It has to be Jesus Plus something... be it
vegetarianism, magic, rejection of any notions which don't fit their
preferences for warm fuzzies spiritual experience.

I guess this is what has attracted me to Benedictine monasticism.
Benedict writes of "stability", of staying in one place, one
monastery. Not traveling hither and yon all over the place looking
for the Next Big Thing or going on yet another retreat or buying the
latest new prayerbook. But of sticking with one place and letting it
sink into one's marrow, allowing the Gospel and the Scriptures to
remake and remold us into better mirrors to reflect back to God His
image and likeness.

I can't speak knowledgeably of any other culture, but this stability
is as opposite the cultural norms of the USA as it can get. Many
people interpret it as a refusal to consider something new whereas I
view it as choosing to be completed in one area before going on to
something else. There is nothing better under the sun than Jesus
Christ as revealed to us in Scriptures, Creeds and the teachings of
the apostles and those who followed in the apostolic teaching. I can
think of nothing more wonderful than to place one's self in the hands
of the living God and following in the footsteps of those who for
millenia have showed us what happens when we let God, Father, Son and
Holy Spirit do as He would.

So many people here in the USA want short cuts. I know many who want
the fruits but without spending the years of work that develop them.
Yes, Thomas Merton had meaningful dialogue with those form the East,
but only after how many decades of saturation in prayer, Scripture,
liturgy, study first? The prep work takes time and trust that God
knows what he is doing.

Let's call it what it is: Blackmail

From The Living Church, 1/9/07

Nigerian Primate: Consensus on Sexuality Necessary Before Lambeth
Conference
1/29/2007

The issue of homosexuality and the Anglican Communion must be
resolved before the 2008 Lambeth Conference, if the Church of Nigeria
is to participate, according to Archbishop Peter Akinola.

In a Jan. 14 interview with the Guardian newspaper of Lagos,
Archbishop Akinola, the primate of the Communion’s largest province,
said sending more than 100 Nigerian bishops to Lambeth would not be
an act of prudent stewardship, if the conference was simply going to
be an expensive episcopal jamboree.

“A Lambeth Conference that will not be able to guide the church in a
way that the church will embrace” and “comply” is “not worth
attending,” the archbishop said. The Church of Nigeria would be a
“bad steward, to use God’s resources and waste it on jamboree. God
will hold me responsible and accountable for spending money in that
way.”

The Lambeth Conference “does not legislate” nor can it tell “any
diocese or province” what to do, Archbishop Akinola said. However,
“as a result of the fellowship, praying together, studying the word
of God together,” the bishops at Lambeth come to a “consensus of
opinion, which we now commend to the provinces for further actions.”

No decision as to whether the Nigerian bishops would attend Lambeth
has yet been reached, Archbishop Akinola told the Guardian.

“We are hoping that after the primates’ meeting in Tanzania next
month, we will have a clearer vision of what we have. If the Lambeth
Conference is worth attending, we must put this problem behind us,”
he said."


My response:

It breaks my heart to read this. First of all, let's call it what it is: blackmail. Pure and simple, nothing else but blackmail. Akinola has played his hand and we see that he wants the image and likeness of the Anglican Communion to be the one he has selected for it. He has clearly revealed that he believes he is the one who should be saying what does and what does not happ;en at Lambeth, '08. Clearly he believes that his agenda is more important than that of the Archbishop of Canterbury who is the one who issues the invitations to Lambeth. And unless the ABC and the rest of the Anglican Communion hop to the tune of Akinola's choosing, then he feels it won't be worth his while to attend.

I say: good riddance, don't attend, Akinola, because Lambeth doesn't need you and the the Anglican Communion doesn't need you.

Has it really to this pass that who does what with whom in bed is more important than feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, caring for the sick, providing for those who
cannot provide for themselves, etc?

I don't see how anyone who bears the name "Christian" could allow
themselves to be swept up into such a distortion of the Good News of
Jesus Christ. The great enemy must be dancing with glee that he has
so successfully distracted so many from attending to that which the
Bible speaks of more than any other subject: our duty to the poor, the
needy, the hungry, the sick, the infirm.

I call the following a threat:

> The issue of homosexuality and the Anglican Communion must be
> resolved before the 2008 Lambeth Conference, if the Church of Nigeria
> is to participate, according to Archbishop Peter Akinola.>

The source of this threat is evil. It is past time for this sort of
thing to be labelled for the evil that it is. Look at the fruits of
the spirit in those who dissent against The Episcopal Church: schism,
hatred, discrimmination, false witness, theft and now this elevation
of something to which the Bible hardly speaks above those issues the
Bible itself names as the most important. Evil at work.

Repent and be saved. Ask forgiveness of the Lord and share with us in
the breaking of the bread, prayers, fellowship and the teachings of
the apostles.

30/01/07, week of Epiphany 4

[Please remember this is a sort of "menu" from which to select. No one has to pray it all]

Collect

Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Today's Scripture: http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/

Psalm 61, 62; Psalm 68:1-20(21-23)24-36; Isa. 52:1-12; Gal. 4:12-20; Mark 8:1-10
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From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm

Psalm 61. For you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy.

I lived in New York City on September 11, 2001. I have thought a lot about towers in recent years. In ancient Palestine, towers protected the people from marauders. It is no accident that strong towers provided the biblical writers with metaphors for God's loving and steadfast protection of his people. In our day, towers are more likely to take the form of skyscrapers and office buildings. Such towers are all too vulnerable. In the light of that day, the psalmist's metaphor sounds ironic. But many who endured those days in New York City and in Washington, who flocked for refuge to area churches, perhaps recognized that for all the vulnerability of man-made towers, God's own towering presence as shield and guide seemed all the more secure and sure. I am reminded of the prayer that ends the Prayer Book healing service, a fitting complement to today's psalm: "The Almighty Lord, who is a strong tower to all who put their trust in him, to whom all things in heaven, on earth, and under the earth bow and obey, be now and evermore your defense, and make you know and feel that the only Name under heaven given for health and salvation is the Name of Our Lord Jesus Christ."
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Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm

Charles, Stuart, King of England
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Society_of_King_Charles_the_Martyr
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Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Malakal (The Sudan)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
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Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php

If you would progress a long way on this road and ascend to the Mansions of your desire, the important thing is not to think much but to love much; do then, whatever most arouses your love.
St Teresa of Jesus
Interior Castle, IV.1
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Reading from the Desert Christians: http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html

On how to become a disciple:

It was said of abba John the Dwarf that one day he said to his elder brother, "I should like to be free of all care, like the angels who do not work, but ceaselessly offer worship to God." So he took leave of his brother and went away into the desert. After a week he came back to his brother. When he knocked on the door he heard his brother say, "Who are you?" before he opened it. He said, "I am John, your brother." But he replied, "John has become an angel and henceforth he is no longer among men." Then John besought him, saying, "It is I." However, his brother did not let him in but left him there in distress until morning. Then, opening the door, he said to him, "You are a man and you must once again work in order to eat." Then John made a prostration before him, saying, "Forgive me."
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Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/

Choosing Joy

Joy is what makes life worth living, but for many joy seems hard to find. They complain that their lives are sorrowful and depressing. What then brings the joy we so much desire? Are some people just lucky, while others have run out of luck? Strange as it may sound, we can choose joy. Two people can be part of the same event, but one may choose to live it quite differently than the other. One may choose to trust that what happened, painful as it may be, holds a promise. The other may choose despair and be destroyed by it.

What makes us human is precisely this freedom of choice.
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From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:

The Three Notes

(30) The humility, love, and joy which mark the lives of us as
Tertiaries are all God-given graces. They can never be obtained by human
effort. They are gifts of the Holy Spirit. The purpose of Christ is to
work miracles through people who are willing to be emptied of self and
to surrender to Him. We then become channels of grace through whom His
mighty work is done.

O God, You resist the proud and give grace to the humble: help us not to
think proudly, but to serve You with humility that pleases You, so we
may walk in the steps of Your servant Francis and receive the gift of
Your grace; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html

"Gospel Power"

God speaks the true word of power, but we cannot believe it. We trust in our power, which we think will change the world. But what has it done? Look at our own government. Look at the world! How little culture, how little real civilization the world has achieved. How little humanity! Conservatives tend to mistrust powerlessness, while liberals tend to mistrust power. Jesus puts them both together in an utterly new way that satisfies neither group. We have never had the courage to take the word of the Lord seriously. We are afraid of both gospel power and gospel powerlessness. We've experienced just enough Christianity, someone once said, to forever inoculate ourselves from wanting the real thing.

from The Great Themes of Scripture
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From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.
http://www.artsci.villanova.edu/dsteelman/tradition/sources.html

Devotion to prayer

The purpose of prayer is nothing other than to manifest God and self. And this manifestation of God and self leads to a state of perfect and true humility. For this humility is attained when the soul sees God and self. It is in this profound state of humility, and from it, that divine grace deepens and grows in the soul. The more divine grace deepens humility in the soul, the more divine grace can grow in this depth of humility. The more divine grace grows, the deeper the soul is grounded, and the more it is settled in a state of true humility. Through perseverance in true prayer, divine light and grace increase, and these always make the soul grow deep in humility as it reads, as has been said, the life of Jesus Christ, God and man. I cannot conceive anything greater than the manifestation of God and self. But this discovery, that is, this manifestation of God and self, is the lot only of those legitimate sons and daughters of God who have devoted themselves to true prayer.

Angela of Foligno, (1248 - 1309) was a married woman who dedicated her life, after the death of her husband and children, to following Christ and making known the God-man.

read more: www.newadvent.org/cathen/01482a.htm
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Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/

Chapter 7: On Humility

The second degree of humility
is that a person love not his own will
nor take pleasure in satisfying his desires,
but model his actions on the saying of the Lord,
"I have come not to do My own will,
but the will of Him who sent Me" (John 6:38).
It is written also,
"Self-will has its punishment,
but constraint wins a crown."

Commentary: http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html

The first rung of the ladder of the spiritual life is to recognize that God is God, that nothing else can be permitted to consume us or satisfy us, that we must reach out for God before we can even begin to live the God-life. We must come to understand that we are not our own destinies.

The second rung of the spiritual life follows naturally: If God is my center and my end, then I must accept the will of God, knowing that in it lies the fullness of life for me, however obscure. The question, of course, is how do we recognize the Will of God? How do we tell the will of God from our own? How do we know when to resist the tide and confront the opposition and when to embrace the pain and accept the bitterness because "God wills it for us." The answer lies in the fact that the Jesus who said "I have come not to do my own will but the will of the One who sent me" is also the Jesus who prayed in Gethsemane, "Let this chalice pass from me:" The will of God for us is what remains of a situation after we try without stint and pray without ceasing to change it.
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Readings in Great Christian Classics

The Practice Of The Presence Of God: Conversations and Letters: of Brother Lawrence
http://www.practicegodspresence.com/brotherlawrence/index.html

Editor's Preface

Brother Lawrence was born Nicholas Herman around 1610 in Herimenil, Lorraine, a Duchy of France. His birth records were destroyed in a fire at his parish church during the Thirty Years War, a war in which he fought as a young soldier. It was also the war in which he sustained a near fatal injury to his sciatic nerve. The injury left him quite crippled and in chronic pain for the rest of his life.

He was educated both at home and by his parish priest whose first name was Lawrence and who was greatly admired by the young Nicholas. He was well read and, from an early age, drawn to a spiritual life of faith and love for God.

In the years between the abrupt end of his duties as a soldier and his entry into monastic life, he spent a period of time in the wilderness living like one of the early desert fathers. Also, prior to entering the monastery, he spent some time in private service. In his characteristic, self deprecating way, he mentions that he was a "footman who was clumsy and broke everything".

At mid-life he entered a newly established monastery in Paris where he became the cook for the community which grew to over one hundred members. After fifteen years, his duties were shifted to the sandal repair shop but, even then, he often returned to the busy kitchen to help out.

In times as troubled as today, Brother Lawrence, discovered, then followed, a pure and uncomplicated way to walk continually in God's presence. For some forty years, he lived and walked with Our Father at his side. Yet, through his own words, we learn that Brother Lawrence's first ten years were full of severe trials and challenges.

A gentle man of joyful spirit, Brother Lawrence shunned attention and the limelight, knowing that outside distraction "spoils all". It was not until after his death that a few of his letters were collected. Joseph de Beaufort, counsel to the Paris archbishop, first published the letters in a small pamphlet. The following year, in a second publication which he titled, 'The Practice of the Presence of God', de Beaufort included, as introductory material, the content of four conversations he had with Brother Lawrence.

In this small book, through letters and conversations, Brother Lawrence simply and beautifully explains how to continually walk with God - not from the head but from the heart. Brother Lawrence left the gift of a way of life available to anyone who seeks to know God's peace and presence; that anyone, regardless of age or circumstance, can practice -anywhere, anytime. Brother Lawrence also left the gift of a direct approach to living in God's presence that is as practical today as it was three hundred years ago.

Brother Lawrence died in 1691, having practiced God's presence for over forty years. His quiet death was much like his monastic life where each day and each hour was a new beginning and a fresh commitment to love God with all his heart.
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Monday, January 29, 2007

29.01/07 week of Epiphany 4

[Please remember this is a sort of "menu" from which to select. No one has to pray it all]

Collect
Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Today's Scripture: http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/

Psalm 56, 57, [58]; 64, 65; Isa. 51:17-23; Gal. 4:1-11; Mark 7:24-37
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From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm

Mark 7:24-37. And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.

When Mark tells healing stories like this, there are often two things going on at the same time. The story tells us what happened, in rich detail. But in telling us what happened then, Mark also tells us what's happening now, with us, in our own lives, and about the gospel we have been given to proclaim. I love the earthy way Mark tells this story. Jesus puts his fingers in the deaf man's ears, and spits and then touches the deaf man's tongue. What is compelling is how physically close Jesus gets to the person he heals. This is no distant deity pulling strings; this God shares our humanity, in all its earthy touchability. But there's more to the story than this, and Mark knows it. For this man to hear, for his tongue to be loosened, for him to speak plainly, is to demonstrate what it means to be freed to preach the gospel. The healed man embodies the good news of salvation--and nothing, not even Jesus' plea for secrecy, can stop him from spreading the word. Surely Mark hopes that we who read this story can take our cue from deaf ears healed and stumbling speech made plain, and speak plainly, too, about the power of this gospel in our own day.
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Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm

This day is a "feria", a free day. So far we remember no one in particular on January 29. Let us join together to offer this prayer: http://www.oremus.org/oremus.cgi?f

Merciful God,
you give us every good gift.
Hear our prayers which we now offer
through your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.

We pray for your Church.
May our divisions be healed,
that we may go into the world proclaiming your Good News.
Lord, in your mercy:
hear our prayer.

We pray for the physical and spiritual well-being
of our family and friends,
that they may rejoice in your mercy and love
and share in your joy in your heavenly Kingdom.
Lord, in your mercy:
hear our prayer.

We pray for those who work,
especially those who are stressed or overwhelmed,
that they may know you are their refuge and strength.
Lord, in your mercy:
hear our prayer.

We pray for those who are persecuted
for fighting for justice and liberty,
that they may remember that you are the source
of all things just and free.
Lord, in your mercy:
hear our prayer.

Glory to you, Lord Jesus Christ, our Good Shepherd:
you have led us to the kingdom of your Father's love.
Forgive our careless indifference
to your loving care for all your creatures,
and remake us in the likeness of your new and risen life.
We ask this in your Name. Amen.
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Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Malaita, Solomon Islands (Melanesia)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
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Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php

Take God for your friend and walk with him - and you will learn to love.
St John of the Cross
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Reading from the Desert Christians: http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html

On how to become a disciple:

Some old men said, "If you see a young man climbing up to the heavens by his own will, catch him by the foot and throw him down to the earth; it is not good for him."

At first abba Ammoe said to abba Isaiah, "What do you think of me?" He said to him, "You are an angel, father." Later on he said to him, "and now, what do you think of me?" He replied, "You are like Satan. Even when you say a good word to me, it is like steel."

Abba Moses asked abba Sylvanus, "Can a man lay a new foundation every day?" The old man said, "If he works hard, he can lay a new foundation at every moments."
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Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/

Healing Our Memories

Forgiving does not mean forgetting. When we forgive a person, the memory of the wound might stay with us for a long time, even throughout our lives. Sometimes we carry the memory in our bodies as a visible sign. But forgiveness changes the way we remember. It converts the curse into a blessing. When we forgive our parents for their divorce, our children for their lack of attention, our friends for their unfaithfulness in crisis, our doctors for their ill advice, we no longer have to experience ourselves as the victims of events we had no control over.

Forgiveness allows us to claim our own power and not let these events destroy us; it enables them to become events that deepen the wisdom of our hearts. Forgiveness indeed heals memories.
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The Merton Reflection for the Week of January 29, 2007
We prescribe for one another remedies that will bring us peace of mind, and we are still devoured by anxiety. We evolve plans for disarmament and for the peace of nations, and our plans only change the manner and method of aggression. The rich have everything they want except happiness, and the poor are sacrificed to the unhappiness of the rich. Dictatorships use their secret police to crush millions under an intolerable burden of lies, injustice and tyranny, and those who still live in democracies have forgotten how to make good use of their liberty. For liberty is a thing of the spirit, and we are no longer able to live for anything but our bodies. How can we find peace, true peace, if we forget that we are not machines for making and spending money, but spiritual beings, sons and daughters of the most high God?

From: Thomas Merton. The Monastic Journey. Patrick Hart, editor. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1978: 62.

Thought to Remember:
The world is, by its very essence, struggle, conflict, division, dissension. For there to be peace in the world, men must renounce their selfishness in order to make peace, and we cannot make peace with others unless we are at peace with ourselves.
The Monastic Journey: 63
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From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:

(29) This joy is a divine gift, coming from union with God in Christ. It
is still there even in times of darkness and difficulty, giving cheerful
courage in the face of disappointment, and an inward serenity and
confidence through sickness and suffering. Those who possess it can
rejoice in weakness, insults, hardships, and persecutions for the sake
of Christ; for when they are weak, then they are strong.

Heavenly Father, you are always pleased to show yourself to those who
are childlike and humble in spirit: help us to follow the example of our
blessed father Francis, to look upon the wisdom of this world as
foolishness, and set our minds only on Christ Jesus and Him crucified;
to Whom with You and the Holy Spirit be all glory for ever. Amen.
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Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html

"God Loves You"

Read the praise prayers of St. Francis from beginning to end. All St. Francis needs to do is praise God. That takes care of everything else. Because he's letting God be God. He praises God for this, he praises God for that. Every situation, even though immediately it might look unhappy of difficult or absurd or impossible, he praises God. That becomes the transparency through which God is able to act through us and in us, when we trust God that much, when we believe that God is always loving us. There is no time, no place, no situation in which God is not loving you. There is not way God is not loving you. We have to be the continual "yes" for the love to come through. And then our lives become no more coincidence, but continuous providence!

from The Great Themes of Scripture
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From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.
http://www.artsci.villanova.edu/dsteelman/tradition/sources.html

May your "amen" accord with the truth

Faith seeks understanding; so you may now say to me: "We know from whom our Lord Jesus Christ took his flesh—it was from the Virgin Mary. As a baby, he was suckled, he was fed, he developed, he came to young man's estate. He was slain on the cross, he was taken down from it, he was buried, he rose again on the third day. On the day of his own choosing, he ascended to heaven, taking his body with him; and it is from heaven that he will come to judge the living and the dead. But now that he is there, seated at the right hand of the Father, how can bread be his body? And the cup, or rather what is in the cup, how can that be his blood?"

These things, my friends, are called sacraments, because our eyes see in them one thing, our understanding another. Our eyes see the material form; our understanding, its spiritual effect. If, then, you want to know what the body of Christ is, you must listen to what the apostle tells the faithful: Now you are the body of Christ, and individually you are members of it.

If that is so, it is the sacrament of yourselves that is placed on the Lord's altar, and it is the sacrament of yourselves that you receive. You reply "amen" to what you are, and thereby agree that such you are. You hear the words "the body of Christ," and you reply "amen." Be, then, a member of Christ's body, so that your "amen" may accord with the truth.

Augustine of Hippo, (354 - 430), bishop of Hippo, became the most influential person of the Western Church and left many writings to posterity.
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On Prayer:
O Great and wondrous God, Who of Thy searchless mercy and rich providence
dost govern all things, and hast granted unto us the good things of this
world; Who hast preserved us even unto this day and hour, and verily
prepared for us the promised Kingdom: Of Thy goodness vouchsafe that we may
live the remainder of our lives undefiled before Thy face, and worthily
hymn Thee, the One True God.

Archimandrite Sophrony Sakharov, On Prayer, p. 183.
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Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict
http://www.osb.org/rb/

Chapter 7: On Humility

We must be on our guard, therefore, against evil desires,
for death lies close by the gate of pleasure.
Hence the Scripture gives this command:
"Go not after your concupiscences" (Eccles. 18:30).

So therefore,
since the eyes of the Lord observe the good and the evil (Prov. 15:3)
and the Lord is always looking down from heaven
on the children of earth
"to see if there be anyone who understands and seeks God" (Ps. 13:2),
and since our deeds are daily,
day and night,
reported to the Lord by the Angels assigned to us,
we must constantly beware, brethren,
as the Prophet says in the Psalm,
lest at any time God see us falling into evil ways
and becoming unprofitable (Ps. 13:3);
and lest, having spared us for the present
because in His kindness He awaits our reformation,
He say to us in the future,
"These things you did, and I held My peace" (Ps. 49:21).



Selections above from Saint Benedict's Rule for Monasteries, translated from the Latin by Leonard J. Doyle OblSB, of Saint John's Abbey, (© Copyright 1948, 2001, by the Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, MN 56321). Adapted for use here with the division into sense lines of the first edition that was republished in 2001 to mark the 75th anniversary of Liturgical Press. Doyle's translation is available in both hardcover and paperback editions.
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Sunday, January 28, 2007

28/01////7 Epiphany 4

[Please remember this is a sort of "menu" from which to select. No one has to pray it all]

Collect

Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth: Mercifully hear the supplications of your people, and in our time grant us your peace; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Today's Scripture
http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/

Psalm 71:1-17; or 71:1-6,15-17
Jeremiah 1:4-10; 1 Corinthians 14:12b-20; Luke 4:21-32
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From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm

1 Corinthians 14:12b-20. I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the mind also.

Years ago, when I was a relatively new rector in a parish near several major universities, I led a class for new members of the church. I always love leading inquirers' classes for adults. Adults come to classes like this not because they have to but because they want to, and they often ask questions that force me to reexamine facets of belief that I have always taken for granted. I remember that early class because of a comment one of its members made to me toward the end of one particularly lively and wide-ranging session. "I like coming to church here," he said, "because no one forces you to check your brain at the door." That comment makes me think of this passage in Paul, who must have led pretty raucous inquirers' classes in his Corinthian congregations. Both Paul and the congregations he led had a strong reputation for what we might today call charismatic behaviors--testifying, prophesying, speaking in tongues. Gathering with believers in Corinth must have been a highly emotional experience. Paul prized such enthusiasm, but he also knew its dangers. Religious maturity in Corinth, he insisted, was as much a matter of the head as of the heart. I wish that more church people today, who often shy away from rigorous theological reflection, would take Paul at his word.
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Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm

THOMAS AQUINAS, PRIEST, FRIAR, AND THEOLOGIAN

Psalm 37:3-6,32-33 or 119:97-104
Wisdom 7:7-14
Matthew 13:47-52

Almighty God, you have enriched your Church with the singular learning and holiness of your servant Thomas Aquinas: Enlighten us more and more, we pray, by the disciplined thinking and teaching of Christian scholars, and deepen our devotion by the example of saintly lives; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
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Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Makurdi (Prov. III, Nigeria)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
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Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php

The loveliest masterpiece of the heart of God is the heart of a mother.
St Therese of the Child Jesus
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Reading from the Desert Christians
http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html

On Obedience:

They said that abba Sylvanus had a disciple in Scetis, named Mark, who possessed in great measure the virtue of obedience. He was a copyist of old manuscripts, and the old man loved him for his obedience. He had eleven other disciples who were aggrieved that he loved more than them.

When the old men nearby heard that he loved Mark above the others, they took it ill. One day they visited him and abba Sylvanus took them with him and, going out of his cell, began to knock on the door of each of his disciples, saying, "Brother, come out, I have work for you." And noe old men, "Where are the other brothers?", and he went into Mark's cell and found the book in which he had been writing and he was making the letter O; and when he heard the old man's voice, he had not finished the line of the O. And the old men said, "Truly, abba, we also love the one whom you love; for God loves him, too."
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Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/

Forgiving in the Name of God

We are all wounded people. Who wounds us? Often those whom we love and those who love us. When we feel rejected, abandoned, abused, manipulated, or violated, it is mostly by people very close to us: our parents, our friends, our spouses, our lovers, our children, our neighbors, our teachers, our pastors. Those who love us wound us too. That's the tragedy of our lives. This is what makes forgiveness from the heart so difficult. It is precisely our hearts that are wounded. We cry out, "You, who I expected to be there for me, you have abandoned me. How can I ever forgive you for that?"

Forgiveness often seems impossible, but nothing is impossible for God. The God who lives within us will give us the grace to go beyond our wounded selves and say, "In the Name of God you are forgiven." Let's pray for that grace.

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From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:

(28) We as Tertiaries, rejoicing in the Lord always, show in our lives
the grace and beauty of divine joy. We remember that we follow the Son
of Man, who came eating and drinking, Who loved the birds and the
flowers, Who blessed little children, Who was a friend to tax collectors
and sinners and Who sat at the tables of both the rich and the poor. We
delight in fun and laughter, rejoicing in God's world, its beauty and
its living creatures, calling nothing common or unclean. We mix freely
with all people, ready to bind up the broken-hearted and to bring joy
into the lives of others. We carry within us an inner peace and
happiness which others may perceive, even if they do not know its
source.


Almighty God, Your love led Francis and Clare to establish our three
orders: draw us into Your love that we may grow in love towards all
those we know, for the sake of Your Son, Jesus Christ, who gives Himself
in love to all. Amen.
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Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html

"Honor the Sabbath"

We see in the Third Commandment a very basic understanding of the relationship between God and humanity. The Hebrews said, on the seventh day, the Sabbath, they would rest. Everything would stop. "This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice in God and be glad," sings the psalmist. The Lord says: "I have to teach these people that I'm their power, that I'm their lover and that I'm their life. So just one day a week, a seventh of your time, stop proving yourselves, stop achieving, stop accomplishing. Stop doing anything that is task oriented. Let me do the saving, the loving, the liberating." That was the meaning of the sabbath rest: to wait upon the Lord, to rest in the Lord. And in order to allow the Lord to prove himself, they would not sow their fields every seventh year. We find our that it is not we who are doing the loving. Someone is loving through us.

from The Great Themes of Scripture
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From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.
http://www.artsci.villanova.edu/dsteelman/tradition/sources.html

The cross exemplifies every virtue

Why did the Son of God have to suffer for us? There was a great need, and it can be considered in a twofold way: in the first place, as a remedy for sin, and secondly, as an example of how to act.

It is a remedy, for, in the face of all the evils which we incur on the account of our sins, we have found relief through the passion of Christ. Yet, it is no less an example, for the passion of Christ completely suffices to fashion our lives. Whoever wishes to live perfectly should do nothing but disdain what Christ disdained on the cross and desire what he desired, for the cross exemplifies every virtue.

If you seek the example of love: Greater love than this no man has, than to lay down his life for his friends. Such a man was Christ on the cross. And if he gave his life for us, then it should not be difficult to bear whatever hardships arise for his sake.

Thomas Aquinas, O.P., (1225 - 1274), a Dominican friar, wrote the monumental work Summa Theologiae. Although his philosophy took its shape from Aristotle, at a deeper level Saint Thomas continued to uphold many fundamental Platonist doctrines which he received from Saint Augustine and Dionysius of Areopagite.
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Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict
http://www.osb.org/rb/

Chapter 7: On Humility

As for self-will,
we are forbidden to do our own will
by the Scripture, which says to us,
"Turn away from your own will" (Eccles. 18:30),
and likewise by the prayer in which we ask God
that His will be done in us.
And rightly are we taught not to do our own will
when we take heed to the warning of Scripture:
"There are ways which seem right,
but the ends of them plunge into the depths of hell" (Prov. 16:25);
and also when we tremble at what is said of the careless:
"They are corrupt and have become abominable in their will."

And as for the desires of the flesh,
let us believe with the Prophet that God is ever present to us,
when he says to the Lord,
"Every desire of mine is before You" (Ps. 37:10).



Selections above from Saint Benedict's Rule for Monasteries, translated from the Latin by Leonard J. Doyle OblSB, of Saint John's Abbey, (© Copyright 1948, 2001, by the Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, MN 56321). Adapted for use here with the division into sense lines of the first edition that was republished in 2001 to mark the 75th anniversary of Liturgical Press. Doyle's translation is available in both hardcover and paperback editions.
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Saturday, January 27, 2007

27/01/07 week of Epiphany 3

[Please remember this is a sort of "menu" from which to select. No one has to read it all]

Collect

Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Today's Scripture
http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/

Psalm 55; Psalm 138, 139:1-17(18-23)
Isa. 51:1-8; Gal. 3:23-29; Mark 7:1-23
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From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm

Galatians 3:23-29. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

When Paul talks about clothing like this, he isn't speaking in metaphor. It's likely that people coming for baptism in the early church were clothed in fresh white garments as soon as they arose from the water. It was an impressive way to show that the old Adam has been laid aside--even drowned--and the new Adam resurrected and restored.


In many Orthodox churches in the East, infants are baptized in the nude, then clothed with a white garment, a dramatic demonstration that the baptized acquire a radically new identity. My brother married into a Greek Orthodox family, and I saw my little nephew baptized in this way. It was a moment of great tenderness when the priest anointed his naked little body, and of drama when he immersed the child (who was none too happy about it) three times in the deep baptismal font. The baby's mother and grandmother then whisked him away to a side room and emerged triumphantly with him moments later, the child perfectly dry and dressed in a natty new suit. I often remember that moment when I hear these words of Paul and imagine myself as well newly clothed with Christ.
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Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm

JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
BISHOP OF ANTIOCH AND OF CONSTANTINOPLE, PREACHER, THEOLOGIAN, LITURGIST

Psalm 49:1-8 or 34:15-22
Jeremiah 1:4-10
Luke 21:12-15

O God, who gave to your servant John Chrysostom grace eloquently to proclaim your righteousness in the great congregation, and fearlessly to bear reproach for the honor of your Name: Mercifully grant to all bishops and pastors such excellency in preaching, and fidelity in ministering your Word, that your people shall be partakers with them of the glory that shall be revealed; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
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Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Makamba (Burundi)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
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Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php

Without love, deeds, even the most brilliant, count as nothing.
St. Therese of the Child Jesus
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Reading from the Desert Christians
http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html

On Obedience

The holy Syncletia said, "I think that for those living in community obedience is a greater virtue than chasity, however perfect. Chastity carries within it the danger of pride, but obedience has within it the promise of humility."

The old men used to say, "If someone has faith in another and hands himself over to him in complete submission, he does not need to pay attention to God's commandments but he can entrust his whole will to his father. He will suffer no reproach from God, for God looks for nothing from beginners so much as renunciation through obedience."

Abba Mios of Belos said, "Obedience responds to obedience. When someone obeys God, then God obeys his request."
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Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/

Healing Our Hearts Through Forgiveness

How can we forgive those who do not want to be forgiven? Our deepest desire is that the forgiveness we offer will be received. This mutuality between giving and receiving is what creates peace and harmony. But if our condition for giving forgiveness is that it will be received, we seldom will forgive! Forgiving the other is first and foremost an inner movement. It is an act that removes anger, bitterness, and the desire for revenge from our hearts and helps us to reclaim our human dignity. We cannot force those we want to forgive into accepting our forgiveness. They might not be able or willing do so. They may not even know or feel that they have wounded us.

The only people we can really change are ourselves. Forgiving others is first and foremost healing our own hearts.
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From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:

(27) We who belong to The Third Order are a Christian community whose
members, although varied in race, education, and character, are bound
into a living whole through the love we share in Christ. This unity of
all of us who believe in Him will become, as our Lord intended, a
witness to the world of His divine mission. In our relationships with
those outside the Order we as Tertiaries show the same Christ like love,
and gladly give of ourselves, remembering that love is measured by
sacrifice.

O God, by the life of blessed Francis You moved Your people to a love of
simple things: may we, after his example, hold lightly to the things of
this world and store up for ourselves treasure in heaven through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html

"Irish Wisdom"

Once after I gave a retreat in Ireland, three older women came up afterward and said, "Oh, Father, what you were saying is what we believed years ago, but we threw it out with the Second Vatican Council." They told me about the fallen priest. He was the priest who'd had some terrible moral failure, as if all of didn't. The fallen priest was, of course, looked down upon and whisked away to some monastery on the coast of Ireland so the good Irish people wouldn't imagine that their priest sinned or drank. Yet the three women told me, excitedly, "You know what? We don't know if the priests knew this, but we old Irish people always went to the fallen ones for the cure." Now, there's Irish wisdom.

from Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the 12 Steps
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From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.
http://www.artsci.villanova.edu/dsteelman/tradition/sources.html

Your reward is certain

The Good Shepherd lost none of his sheep when he laid down his life for them; he did not desert them, but kept them safe; he did not abandon them but called them to follow him, leading them by the way of death through the lowlands of this passing world to the pastures of life.

Listen to the shepherd's words: My sheep hear my voice and follow me. Those who have followed him to death will inevitably also follow him to life; his companions in shame will be his companions in honor, just as those who have shared his suffering will share his glory. Where I am, he says, there shall my servant be also. And where is that? Surely in heaven, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Do not be troubled, then, because you must live by faith, nor grow weary because hope is deferred. Your reward is certain; it is preserved for you in him who created all things. You are dead, scripture says, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ your life appears, you too will appear with him in glory. What was concealed from the farmer at seedtime he will see as he gathers in the sheaves, and the man who plows in sorrow will harvest his crop in gladness.

Peter Chrysologus, (400 - 450), bishop of Ravenna, was above all a pastor and preached many sermons to his people.
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Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict
http://www.osb.org/rb/

Chapter 7: On Humility

Let a man consider
that God is always looking at him from heaven,
that his actions are everywhere visible to the divine eyes
and are constantly being reported to God by the Angels.
This is what the Prophet shows us
when he represents God as ever present within our thoughts,
in the words "Searcher of minds and hearts is God" (Ps. 7:10)
and again in the words "The Lord knows the thoughts of men" (Ps. 93:11).
Again he says,
"You have read my thoughts from afar" (Ps. 138:3)
and "The thoughts of people will confess to You" (Ps. 75:11).

In order that he may be careful
about his wrongful thoughts, therefore,
let the faithful brother say constantly in his heart,
"Then shall I be spotless before Him,
if I have kept myself from my iniquity" (Ps. 17:24).



Selections above from Saint Benedict's Rule for Monasteries, translated from the Latin by Leonard J. Doyle OblSB, of Saint John's Abbey, (© Copyright 1948, 2001, by the Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, MN 56321). Adapted for use here with the division into sense lines of the first edition that was republished in 2001 to mark the 75th anniversary of Liturgical Press. Doyle's translation is available in both hardcover and paperback editions.
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Friday, January 26, 2007

26/01/07 week of Epiphany 3

[Please remember this is a sort of "menu" from which to select. No one has to read it all]

Collect

Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Today's Scripture http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/

Psalm 40, 54; Psalm 51; Isa. 50:1-11; Gal. 3:15-22; Mark 6:47-56
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From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm

Psalm 51. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

I associate this psalm with Ash Wednesday. It is recited in unison after all have received that smudge of ashes on their foreheads. Today we recite this psalm out of season--not in Lent, but in Epiphany-tide. This is a time of "showing," which is what the word "epiphany" means. On the day of Epiphany a few weeks ago, we commemorated Christ's own "showing" to the magi at the stable in Bethlehem--Christ's "manifestation to the Gentiles." The Sunday following we remembered how Jesus was baptized in the river Jordan, and perhaps we witnessed a baptism in our own parish churches. Epiphany is the season for baptisms, for clean hearts and a right spirit. The season challenges us to present ourselves as signs of Christ's love to a troubled world, washed in the waters of redemption. But it's also good, here in the middle of Epiphany, to be reminded of what about us needs washing. Reciting this psalm returns me to that Ash Wednesday moment, when that smudge of ashes on my brow uncovers all my frailty and weakness. "Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." In this season of washing, it is good to remember the dust.
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Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm

Timothy and Titus, Companions of St. Paul

Psalm 112:1-9 or 23; 2 Timothy 1:1-8; Titus 1:1-5; John 10:1-10

Almighty God, who called Timothy and Titus to be evangelists and teachers, and made them strong to endure hardship: Strengthen us to stand fast in adversity, and to live righteous and godly lives in this present time, that with sure confidence we may look for our blessed hope, the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
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Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray or the Diocese of Maine (Prov. I, U.S.)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
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Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php

How can I fear a God who is nothing but mercy and love.
St. Therese of the Child Jesus
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Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html

On True Peace

Two old men had lived together for many years and they had never fought with one another. The first said to the other, "Let us also have a fight like other men." The other replied, "I do not know how to fight." The first said to him, "Look, I will put a brick between us and I will say: it is mine; and you will reply: no, it is mine; and so the fight will begin." So they put a brick between them and the first said, "No, it is mine", and the other said, "No, it is mine." And the first replied, "If it is yours, take it and go." So they gave it up without being able to find a cause for an argument.

A brother asked abba Poemen, "How should I behave in my cell in the place where I am living?" He replied, "Behave as if you were a stranger, and wherever you are, do not expect your words to have an influence and you will be at peace."
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Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/

Forgiveness, the Way to Freedom

To forgive another person from the heart is an act of liberation. We set that person free from the negative bonds that exist between us. We say, "I no longer hold your offense against you" But there is more. We also free ourselves from the burden of being the "offended one." As long as we do not forgive those who have wounded us, we carry them with us or, worse, pull them as a heavy load. The great temptation is to cling in anger to our enemies and then define ourselves as being offended and wounded by them. Forgiveness, therefore, liberates not only the other but also ourselves. It is the way to the freedom of the children of God.
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From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:

(26) Therefore, as Tertiaries we seek to love all those to whom we are
bound by ties of family or friendship. Our love for them increases as
our love for Christ grows deeper. We have a special love and affection
for members of our own Order, praying for each other individually and
seeking to grow in that love. We are on our guard against anything which
might injure this love and we seek reconciliation with those from whom
we are estranged. We seek the same love for those with whom we have
little natural affinity, for this kind of love is not a welling-up of
emotion, but is a bond founded in their common union with Christ.

Lord Jesus, in Your servant Francis You displayed the wonderful power of
the cross: help us always to follow You in the way of the cross, and
give us strength to resist all temptation, and to You, Lord, with the
Father and the Holy Spirit be all glory for ever. Amen.
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Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html

"The Hole in the Soul"

Do you realize with what difficulty surrender will come to a fixing, managing mentality? There's nothing in that psyche prepared to understand the spiritual wisdom of surrender. All of the great world religions reach surrender. Yet most of us, until we go through the hole in our soul - our weak spot in the middle - just don't think surrender is necessary. At least that's how it is for those of us in First World countries. The poor, on the other hand, seem to understand limitation at a very early age. The Third World faces its limitation through a breakdown in the social-economic system. But we have to face our limitation, it seems, in the interior world. That 's our liberation theology. We must recognize our own poor man, our own abused woman, the oppressed part of ourselves that we have, that we deny, that we're afraid of. That's the hole in our soul. It's the way through, maybe the only way, says the crucified Jesus.

from Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the 12 Steps
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From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.
http://www.artsci.villanova.edu/dsteelman/tradition/sources.html

Fall in love with true virtue

It is up to us to use the freedom we have been given to choose life or death. So I beg you as lovingly and tenderly as I can to be the sort of flower that breathes out a fragrance before God and for those in your care. Be a true shepherd, ready to give your life for your sheep. Correct vice and strengthen the virtuous in doing good. The failure to correct causes decay just as surely as does a gangrenous organ in the human body. Keep a watchful eye on yourself and on those in your care. Don't think it harsh to root out the thorns; the fruit will be far sweeter than the effort is bitter.

Consider God's ineffable love for your salvation; open your eyes and you see his boundless blessings and gifts. Is there a greater love than to give one's life for one's friends? How much more deserving of praise is the one who gave his life for his enemies! So let our hearts be on the defensive no longer, but let hardness be driven out and let these hearts not be stone forever. Let that binding chain be broken with which the devil so often keeps us bound. The power of holy desire, scorn for vice, and love for virtue will break all these bonds. Fall in love with virtue; its effect is the opposite of that of vice, because sin brings bitterness while virtue brings sweetness and even in this life a foretaste of the next.

Catherine of Siena, (1347 - 1380) served the people of Siena with her good works and the Church at large with her peacemaking.
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Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict
http://www.osb.org/rb/

Chapter 7: On Humility

The first degree of humility, then,
is that a person keep the fear of God before his eyes
and beware of ever forgetting it.
Let him be ever mindful of all that God has commanded;
let his thoughts constantly recur
to the hell-fire which will burn for their sins
those who despise God,
and to the life everlasting which is prepared
for those who fear Him.
Let him keep himself at every moment from sins and vices,
whether of the mind, the tongue, the hands, the feet,
or the self-will,
and check also the desires of the flesh.
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"A QUICK CHANGE IN PASTORATE"AND "ANYBODY AND EVERYBODY"

Today's eMo is really two different meditations on texts that will be read in many churches this Sunday. The first is the usual sermon preparation eMo. The second, intended for preachers who wish to focus their congregations' attention on the Church's service to the poor and those who suffer from the effects of war or natural disaster, explores the ministry of Episcopal Relief and Development. As with all the eMos, preachers and teachers are welcome to borrow, with the usual attribution. No further permission is necessary.
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A Quick Change in Pastorate

They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.
Luke 4:30

Getting rid of a preacher seems to have been simpler in New Testament times than it is today. Apparently you could just run him off a cliff.

Ours is a more complicated time, though it is no less savage. Once the idea that a pastoral relationship is irreparably broken has taken root, the agenda shifts. Nobody is asking how the relationship might be redeemed, not any more -- all anybody wants to know is how quickly it can be ended. Rich places can run people off cliffs more easily than poor ones can; a clergyperson's early departure can usually be purchased, if the price is right. And, if it isn't, everyone can end up in a secular courtroom for what can be an ugly business indeed.

Sometimes it becomes clear, after a suitable interval of mourning and licking of wounds, that it was all for the best. Nobody was really a villain; the fit just wasn't right, and both parties are the better for having parted ways. Sometimes there really was a villain, and that person will need some major repentance and some serious work before he or she ever tries again, if that day can ever be allowed to dawn. And sometimes it just becomes clear -- for those who have eyes to see -- that the sickness unto death was not located solely in the entrails of the departed leader, that there were demons lounging about the place before he ever arrived, and that none of them have gone anywhere. They are busy now, readying themselves for a season of productive work with the next search committee.

Oh, no, parish leaders think, what if we make another mistake? What if we're blind in some important way that none of us can discern? What if there's a curse, some kind of weird jinx we cannot shake? What if we've become radioactive, famously difficult and doomed, and nobody will ever want to go near us again?

Hey, I thought this was supposed to be a preaching eMo, you're thinking as you struggle with Sunday's sermon. I can't get up in front of my people and talk about running clergy off cliffs. Or about demons lounging in the vestibule.

No, but you can talk about the aftermath of a major mistake. You can talk about picking up the pieces after something has been smashed to smithereens. You can talk about what a painful thing it is to doubt one's own judgment -- but what a cartoonish horror it is never to do so.

You can talk about finding one's way back to the land of the living again, after something like that. You can remind people that there really aren't curses or jinxes in this world, that all we have is the love of God and that we can trust that love. Nobody's magic and nobody's doomed. We all make mistakes and we all can learn from them.

But to get started this week, you're going to have to get up there and make a joke about running the preacher off a cliff. Good luck with it. Remember that Jesus walked away unharmed, and that you probably will, too.
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Jeremiah 1:4-10
Psalm 71:1-6
I Corinthians13:1-13
Luke 4:21-30

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And here is the ERD meditation:

Anybody and Everybody

But the truth is, there were many widows in Israel in the time of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a severe famine over all the land; yet Elijah was sent to none of them except to a widow at Zarephath in Sidon. There were also many lepers in Israel in the time of the prophet Elisha, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian." When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage.
Luke 4:25-28

What made the people in Jesus' hometown so angry? It was his refusal to limit the love of God to the people of Israel. Healing was for everybody, he told people again and again, throughout his short ministry. Everyone will eat, anyone who is thirsty will drink! Look at these cases, he said, cases you folks remember hearing about: miracles worked by God -- in the lives of foreigners! That was hard for those who had always been told that they were the chosen people to believe.

I suppose it all comes down to what it means to be chosen. It seems that chosen-ness for Jesus involved looking outward, sharing the love of God with people besides the ones known and loved. It seems that chosen-ness was for the sake of the whole human family. We don't have to know who they are or who they follow. Need qualifies them, nothing else.

Who knows how many of the farmers whose cattle herds were devastated by the terrible ice storms in central Nebraska were Episcopalians? How many were Christians? Which of the homes without power and the hospitals on emergency generators were Christian ones? Nobody involved in relieving their suffering knew or cared, not when the ice was eight inches thick in places and the power lines were down.

People in and around the town of Holdredge could go to St. Elizabeth's Episcopal Church for vouchers for food, utilities, rent -- all local businesses were closed, some for as along as three weeks, and many people lost their sole income. During the days when radio and television transmitters were out of commission, the church was an information center. Local pastors quickly improvised a program of community meals at another church, opening its doors for lunch and dinner, other congregations taking turns cooking and serving. In two weeks, the churches of the little town of Holdredge served hundred of meals and dispersed vouchers worth $28,000.

We're going to have a big celebration as soon we can, the Rev'd. Jami Anderson of St. Elizabeth's said. Local restaurants will put on the food, see if we can't help them make up for some of the business they lost. We'll open the agricultural center in town and have a reconnection celebration. Not just the reconnection of the electricity, although that will be wonderful -- there's still only one electrical line going into Holdredge, and we all have to be really careful -- but a celebration of reconnecting with one another and with the outside world.

You know, she went on, one of the things we've been struck by is how blessed we are. The bishop and Episcopal Relief and Development have been great -- we're tiny, and we could never have done what we've been able to do without their help. And we've done it! We're doing it! I've been thinking a lot about how rich we really are. Even with all that's happened, we've got it pretty good.

Through the Diocese of Nebraska, ERD helped St. Elizabeth's help. Right away. A tiny church in a tiny town, frozen in the ice out in the middle of the agricultural heartland. Isolated, but not alone. God was with all the people of that rural area, and the Church was there.

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To learn more about ERD's work, or to make a donation, visit http://www.er-d.org/ or telephone 1--800-334-7626,ext 5129.


Copyright © 2007 Barbara Crafton - http://www.geraniumfarm.org

Thursday, January 25, 2007

25/01/07 week of Epiphany 3

[Please remember this is a sort of "menu" from which to select. No one has to read it all]

Collect

Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Today's Scripture
http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/

Psalm 50; Psalm [59, 60] or 118 Isa. 49:13-23; Gal. 3:1-14; Mark 6:30-46
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From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm

Acts 26:9-21. [Paul said] "To this day I have had help from God."

January is the month to commemorate the life and work of both Peter and Paul--Peter a few days ago on January 18, and Paul today. It is hard to imagine two apostles more different from each other. Peter was a humble fisherman; Paul a man of the world, proud to be a Roman citizen. Paul was also an intellectual, fluent in Greek and polished in rhetoric; Peter may have been illiterate. We think of Peter as a country person, and Paul as urban. But what sets Paul apart not only from Peter but from almost all the rest of Jesus' earliest followers is the extraordinary set of letters that have come down to us--letters where we can hear the fierce passion of Paul's preaching in the churches he founded. And in almost every argument he makes, at the center is his absolute allegiance to that searing experience of conversion to God in Christ, "and him crucified." It is that conversion that we remember today. Nothing else matters to Paul, including all the privileges of his birth and all the accomplishments of his ministry. "Whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ." With all our privileges and accomplishments, what would it take for you and me to declare the same for ourselves?
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Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm

The Conversion of St. Paul

Psalm 67; Acts 26:9-21; Galatians 1:11-24; Matthew 10:16-22

O God, who by the preaching of your apostle Paul have caused the light of the Gospel to shine throughout the world: Grant, we pray, that we, having his wonderful conversion in remembrance, may show ourselves thankful to you by following his holy teaching; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
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Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Maiduguri (Prov. III, Nigeria)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
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Today concludes the week of prayer for Christian Unity:

Call to prayer

From the East to the West,
from the North and the South,
all nations and peoples bless the creator of creatures with a new blessing,
for he made the light of the sunrise today over the world.

O congregations of the righteous,
who glorify the Holy Trinity in the morning of light,
praise Christ, the morning of peace,
together with the Father and the Spirit;
for he has made the light of his knowledge shine over us.
(Matins Hymn, Armenian Sunrise Office)



God, our Father,
here we are your people meeting together in service to adore you.

We humble ourselves as your church universal
in celebrating and bringing to our memory
that you gave yourself up for the whole world.

Join our hearts together that it may be known that we are your children,
that your presence will be among us,
and we may keep unity in the bonds of peace,
which you prepare in the covenant we have with your Son, Jesus Christ.
(Zephanie Kameeta, Namibia. In: “Why, O Lord?” © 1986, WCC, p. 47)

O Lord, open my eyes
that I may see the need of others,
open my ears that I may hear their cries,
open my heart so that they need not be without succour.

Let me not be afraid to defend the weak
because of the anger of the strong,
nor afraid to defend the poor,
because of the anger of the rich.

Show me where love and hope and faith are needed,
and use me to bring them to these places.

Open my eyes and ears that I may, this coming day,
be able to do some work of peace for you.
(Shona prayer, Zimbabwe. In: “The Prayers of African Religion”, John Mbiti © 1975 SPCK, London, U.K. In the US: Orbis Books, Maryknoll NY, USA, 1975, pp. 148-49.)
Affirmation of faith

I believe in a Father
who so loves his children
to wait in silence for their return
in order to give them the best robe,
kill the fatted calf
and celebrate the feast of reconciliation.

I believe in a Spirit
whose power is not revealed in the thunder of the gale
nor in the dread of the earthquake
but in the still, small voice.

I believe in a Son
who broke the power of Silence
with the piercing cry
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Dying on the cross
he transformed the silence of death
into the death of every silence.
(Massimo Aprile, Italy. In: Rete di Liturgia, 1996, No. 2 © Rete di Liturgia.)
Intercession

Our God, heal us from exploitative social structures,
that condemn many to poverty and expose them to infections.

Heal us from poverty
that renders the body susceptible and forces us into unsafe behavior.

Heal us, God in your grace, and transform the world.

Heal us from international injustice,
that sets up exploitative economic policies of trade
and denies millions access to HIV drugs.

Heal us, God in your grace, and transform the world.

Heal us from violence that spreads HIV.

Heal us from ethnic and civil wars that spread the virus.

Heal us, God in your grace, and transform the world.

Heal us from unhealthy gender relations
that leave women powerless to protect themselves,
and that exposes partners and spouses to infections of HIV
and other diseases with it.

Heal us, God in your grace, and transform the world.

Heal us from unhealthy family relations
that tolerate unfaithfulness and bring pain
and hurt to all family members of all generations.

Heal us, God in your grace, and transform the world.

Heal us from social stigma and discrimination that lead
us to uncompassionate acts of isolation and failure
to provide quality care and prevention.

Heal us, God in your grace, and transform the world.

Heal us from resignation and exhaustion
that make us hopeless and inactive and blind for the life in fullness
that you promised to provide.

Heal us, God in your grace, and transform the world.

Heal us from our broken hearts and grief
that continue to pain our spirits and minds
and leave us empty about the meaning of life.

Heal us, God in your grace, and transform the world.

Heal us with resurrection power.

Cause us to rise from fear and hopelessness.

Cause us to rise into your resurrection hope.

Cause us to reclaim our right to life and to quality of life.

Transform us through the joy of your spirit
and your peace that surpasses all our understanding.

Amen.
(Adaptation from “Prayer for Holistic Healing” in AfricaPraying, p. 147 © Musa W. Dube.)
Blessing

Dear Lord,
may the boldness of your Spirit transform us,
may the gentleness of your Spirit lead us,
may the gifts of your Spirit equip us to serve and worship you
now and always.

Through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
Amen.
(From: In Spirit and in Truth, Canberra Assembly Worship Book, #53.)
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Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php

He is within me at each moment; He is guiding and inspiring me with what I must say and do.
St Therese of the Child Jesus
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Reading from the Desert Christians
http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html

On True Peace

One of the brothers asked abba Isidore, a priest of scetis, "Why are the demons so terrified of you?" And the old man said, "Ever since I became a monk I have tried never to let anger rise as far as my mouth."

Abba Joseph asked abba Nisteros, "What should I do about my tongue, for I cannot control it?" The old man said to him, "When you speak, do you find peace?" He replied, "No." The old man said to him, "If you do not find peace, why do you speak? Be silent, and when a conversation takes place, prefer to listen rather to talk."
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Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/

Receiving Forgiveness

There are two sides to forgiveness: giving and receiving. Although at first sight giving seems to be harder, it often appears that we are not able to offer forgiveness to others because we have not been able fully to receive it. Only as people who have accepted forgiveness can we find the inner freedom to give it. Why is receiving forgiveness so difficult? It is very hard to say, "Without your forgiveness I am still bound to what happened between us. Only you can set me free." That requires not only a confession that we have hurt somebody but also the humility to acknowledge our dependency on others. Only when we can receive forgiveness can we give it.
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From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:

The Second Note: Love

(25) Jesus said, I give you a new commandment, that you love one
another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By
this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for
one another. John 13.34-35
Love is the distinguishing feature of all true disciples of Christ who
wish to dedicate themselves to Him as His servants.


Lord, without You our labour is wasted, but with You all who are weak
can find strength: pour Your Spirit on the Society of St Francis; give
Your labourers a pure intention, patient faith, sufficient success on
earth, and joy of serving You in heaven, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
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Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html

"Negative Energy"

There's a tendency toward deception in the dysfunctional family. There is a kind of endless crisis orientation, marked by anxiety. I've seen it in myself at times. Sometimes I can't get motivated unless I have something to be anxious about. Apparently, a lot of us were never taught or encouraged to get the positive juices going, so we don't even know how to do it. When we need something to worry about, to be angry or upset about, we begin on a negative foundation. And if we begin negatively, we're probably going to end negatively. It's no wonder that so many of us, against our best intentions, have become negative people, operating our of various kinds of toxic energy. Those energies are often taken on by entire families. For some of us it's the only kind of response we have modeled for us early in life. We were told what we did wrong, what we should not feel, what we should be afraid of. We were not told how to see and feel the good, how to trust life instead of death.

from Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the 12 Steps
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From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.
http://www.artsci.villanova.edu/dsteelman/tradition/sources.html

Paul's conversion

Herein is Saint Paul's conversion memorable: that it was a triumph over the enemy. When Almighty God would convert the world, opening the door of faith to the Gentiles, who was the chosen preacher of this mystery? Not one of Christ's first followers. To show his power, he put forth his hand into the very midst of the persecutors of his Son, and seized upon the most strenuous among them. The prayer of a dying man, Stephen, is the token and occasion of that triumph which he had reserved for himself. His strength is made perfect in weakness.

It was a triumph over the enemies of Christ; but it was also an expressive emblem of the nature of God's general dealings with the race of man. What are we all but rebels against God and enemies of the truth? Who then could so appropriately fulfill the purpose of him who came to call sinners to repentance, as one who esteemed himself the least of the apostles, that was not meet to be called an apostle, because he had persecuted the Church of God? When Almighty God in his infinite mercy purposed to form a people to himself out of the heathen, as vessels for this glory, first he chose the instrument of this his purpose as a brand from the burning, to be a type of the rest.

John Henry Newman, (1801 - 1890) was a famous preacher in the Church of England and after his reception into the Catholic Church he continued preaching and writing and later was made a cardinal.
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Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict
http://www.osb.org/rb/

Chapter 7: On Humility

Holy Scripture, brethren, cries out to us, saying,
"Everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled,
and he who humbles himself shall be exalted" (Luke 14:11).
In saying this it shows us
that all exaltation is a kind of pride,
against which the Prophet proves himself to be on guard
when he says,
"Lord, my heart is not exalted,
nor are mine eyes lifted up;
neither have I walked in great matters,
nor in wonders above me."
But how has he acted?
"Rather have I been of humble mind
than exalting myself;
as a weaned child on its mother's breast,
so You solace my soul" (Ps. 130:1-2).

Hence, brethren,
if we wish to reach the very highest point of humility
and to arrive speedily at that heavenly exaltation
to which ascent is made through the humility of this present life,
we must
by our ascending actions
erect the ladder Jacob saw in his dream,
on which Angels appeared to him descending and ascending.
By that descent and ascent
we must surely understand nothing else than this,
that we descend by self-exaltation and ascend by humility.
And the ladder thus set up is our life in the would,
which the Lord raises up to heaven if our heart is humbled.
For we call our body and soul the sides of the ladder,
and into these sides our divine vocation has inserted
the different steps of humility and discipline we must climb.



Selections above from Saint Benedict's Rule for Monasteries, translated from the Latin by Leonard J. Doyle OblSB, of Saint John's Abbey, (© Copyright 1948, 2001, by the Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, MN 56321). Adapted for use here with the division into sense lines of the first edition that was republished in 2001 to mark the 75th anniversary of Liturgical Press. Doyle's translation is available in both hardcover and paperback editions.
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Wednesday, January 24, 2007

24/01/07 week of Epiphany 3

[Please remember this is a sort of "menu" from which to select. No one has to read it all]

Collect

Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ and proclaim to all people the Good News of his salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of his marvelous works; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Today's Scripture
http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/

Psalm 119:49-72; Psalm 49, [53]; Isa. 49:1-12; Gal. 2:11-21; Mark 6:13-29
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From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm

Isaiah 49:1-12. And I will turn all my mountains into a road, and my highways shall be raised up.

For those who love the mountains, it's hard to imagine a culture that regarded mountains and valleys as wretched places, signs of a fallen world. But that was often the case in the imagination of ancient writers. They knew that a road through the mountains connecting town to town could be a wonderful, life-saving thing, but building it would entail a tremendous effort of will and brawn. That's why, in that more familiar passage in Isaiah, the prophet can promise that when the Redeemer comes, mountains will be laid low and the rough places made a plain. The kind of geography that mattered to the religious imagination was geography of connection, not of barriers--highways that united people rather than mountains that separated them. It was by a path through the mountains that Moses pushed his way toward the burning bush, and heard the good news of Israel's salvation. It was by blazing a way in the desert that Moses led the Israelites through to the promised land. No wonder Jesus called himself the Way. What high mountains separate you from a relationship with God? What barriers hold you back from following the Way? Can you see the highway that has been built for you?
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Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm

ORDINATION OF FLORENCE LI TIM-OI
FIRST WOMAN PRIEST IN THE ANGLICAN COMMUNION, 24 JANUARY 1944

Psalm 116:1-2; Galatians 3:23-28; Luke 10:1-9

Gracious God, we thank you for calling Florence Li Tim-Oi, much-beloved daughter, to be the first woman to exercise the office of a priest in our Communion; By the grace of your Spirit inspire us to follow her example, serving your people with patience and happiness all our days, and witnessing in every circumstance to our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the same Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Mahajanga (Indian Ocean)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
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We continue to observe the week long prayers for Christian Unity:
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/faith/wop-index.html

Blessing

Dear Lord,
may the boldness of your Spirit transform us,
may the gentleness of your Spirit lead us,
may the gifts of your Spirit equip us to serve and worship you
now and always.

Through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
Amen.
(From: In Spirit and in Truth, Canberra Assembly Worship Book, #53.)
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Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php

For me, prayer means launching out of the heart towards God; it means lifting up ones' eyes, quite simply, to heaven, a cry of grateful love, from the crest of joy or the trough of despair.
St Therese of the Child Jesus
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Reading from the Desert Christians
http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html

On Judging Others:
A brother in Scetis committed a fault. A council was called to which abba Moses was invited, but he refused to go to it. Then the priest sent someone to him, saying, "Come, for everyone is waiting for you". So he got up and went. He took a leaking jug and filled it with water and carried it with him. The others came out to meet him and said, " what is this, father?" The old man said to them, "My sins run out behind me, and I do not see them, and today I am coming to judge the errors of another." When they heard that, they said no more to the brother but forgave him.

A brother sinned and the priest ordered him to go out of the church; abba Bessarion got up and went out with him, saying, "I, too, am a sinner."
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Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/

Community is not possible without the willingness to forgive one another "seventy-seven times" (see Matthew 18:22). Forgiveness is the cement of community life. Forgiveness holds us together through good and bad times, and it allows us to grow in mutual love.

But what is there to forgive or to ask forgiveness for? As people who have hearts that long for perfect love, we have to forgive one another for not being able to give or receive that perfect love in our everyday lives. Our many needs constantly interfere with our desire to be there for the other unconditionally. Our love is always limited by spoken or unspoken conditions. What needs to be forgiven? We need to forgive one another for not being God!
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From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:

(24) The faults that we see in others are the subject of prayer rather
than of criticism. We take care to cast out the beam from our own eye
before offering to remove the speck from another's. We are ready to
accept the lowest place when asked and to volunteer to take it.
Nevertheless, when asked to undertake work of which we feel unworthy or
incapable we do not shrink from it on the grounds of humility, but
confidently attempt it through the power that is made perfect in
weakness.

Merciful God, you have made Your church rich through the poverty of
blessed Francis: help us like him, not to trust in earthly things, but
to seek Your heavenly gifts through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
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Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html

"The Place of Healing"

Why do many languages use the word spirit to describe liquor? What if, next time I have Mass with you, when I hold up the chalice I say, "liquor of Christ?" Wouldn't that shock you all? Isn't it strange that the very thing that has caused so much pain in some of your lives, alcohol, would be the very thing that we use for the sacrament? Is it mere irony or coincidence - or providence? The blood of Christ, the wine of Christ, the liquor of Christ. The place of the wound is the place of the healing. The place of the break is the place of the greatest strength. That's why Jesus himself, even in his resurrected body, reappears with the wounds still in his hands, in his side, in his feet. They do not disappear as you might expect. What's the problem for Thomas? He can't deal with the wounds. Jesus tells him, put your finger in. Deal with pain. Deal with the fact that I'm still broken. No, you're resurrected, you're not supposed to have a hole in your side, says Thomas. "Thomas, put your finger in my hands. Put it in my side. Now, believe" (John 20:27). I don't think you can begin to believe until you put your finger in your own wounds, the wounds of one another and the wounds of Christ.

from Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the 12 Steps
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From John E. Rotelle, O.S.A., Tradition Day by Day: Readings from Church Writers. Augustinian Press. Villanova, PA, 1994.
http://www.artsci.villanova.edu/dsteelman/tradition/sources.html

Our neighbors are like our Maker

To have a Christian love for our neighbors is to love God in them, or them in God; it is to cherish God alone for his own sake, and his creatures for love of him. When we look upon our neighbors, created in the image and likeness of God, should we not say to each other: "Look at these people he has made—are they not like their Maker?" Should we not be drawn irresistibly toward them, embrace them, and be moved to tears for love of them? Should we not call down upon them a hundred thousand blessings? And why? For love of them? No indeed, since we cannot be sure whether, of themselves, they are worthy of love or hate. Then why? For love of God, who created them in his own image and likeness, and so capable of sharing in his goodness, grace, and glory; for love of God, I say, unto whom they exist, from whom they exist, through whom they exist, in whom they exist, for whom they exist, and whom they resemble in a very special manner.

This is why divine love not only repeatedly commands us to love our neighbors, but also itself produces this love and pours it out into our hearts, since they bear its own image and likeness; for just as we are the image of God, so our holy love for one another is the true image of our heavenly love for God.

Francis de Sales, (1567 - 1622), bishop of Geneva, worked zealously to bring the people of Chablais from Calvinism to Catholicism. Together with his friend Saint Jane Frances de Chantal he founded the Order of the Visitation.
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Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict
http://www.osb.org/rb/

Chapter 6: On the Spirit of Silence

Let us do what the Prophet says:
"I said, 'I will guard my ways,
that I may not sin with my tongue.
I have set a guard to my mouth.'
I was mute and was humbled,
and kept silence even from good things" (Ps. 38:2-3).
Here the Prophet shows
that if the spirit of silence ought to lead us at times
to refrain even from good speech,
so much the more ought the punishment for sin
make us avoid evil words.

Therefore, since the spirit of silence is so important,
permission to speak should rarely be granted
even to perfect disciples,
even though it be for good, holy edifying conversation;
for it is written,
"In much speaking you will not escape sin" (Prov. 10:19),
and in another place,
"Death and life are in the power of the tongue" (Prov. 18:21).

For speaking and teaching belong to the mistress;
the disciple's part is to be silent and to listen.
And for that reason
if anything has to be asked of the Superior,
it should be asked
with all the humility and submission inspired by reverence.

But as for coarse jests and idle words
or words that move to laughter,
these we condemn everywhere with a perpetual ban,
and for such conversation
we do not permit a disciple to open her mouth.



Selections above from Saint Benedict's Rule for Monasteries, translated from the Latin by Leonard J. Doyle OblSB, of Saint John's Abbey, (© Copyright 1948, 2001, by the Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, MN 56321). Adapted for use here with the division into sense lines of the first edition that was republished in 2001 to mark the 75th anniversary of Liturgical Press. Doyle's translation is available in both hardcover and paperback editions.


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what to do, what to do?

we don't know
what to do with you,
Jesus!

home from college
on spring break,
you stand up in church
and read the scriptures
with such wonder and awe,
all we can do is nudge one another:
'I had him in kindergarten,
he was always ahead of everyone else!'
'he wasalways helping the younger kids
when he was in youth group."

We can hardly wait to hear
your sermon . . . until
you start talking about
how we are
to welcome the immigrants,
to open the jail doors,
to give more to those
who will only squander it.
Then we whisper (in a stage voice):
'whose bright idea was it
to ask him to preach?'
'somebody out to throw him out
on his keester!'

and so,
we close our hearts to you,
and let you slip through
our souls,
as you go to fulfill
God's hopes for us,
wishing we would follow you
on that winding road
of grace.

(c) 2007 Thom M. Shuman


which three?

"...Now faith, hope, and love abide, these three..."

doubt moves in
and props its feet
at the hearth of my soul,
warming them
on the coals of my unbelief;
while faith
rents space
for a few days
in the summers of my life.

despair is the frayed,
soft corduroy jacket
that fits comfortably
on my shoulders,
while hope
is a hair shirt
i resist wearing.

impatience is the face
i put on
each morning
in order to greet the world,
while love
is that mask
i wear on special occasions,
removing it
when i look in the mirror,
not recognizing myself.

which three will abide in me, O God?

which three?

(c) 2007 Thom M. Shuman
Thom M. Shuman
Greenhills Community Church, Presbyterian
Cincinnati, Ohio