19/01/07, in the week of Epiphany 2
[Please remember this is a sort of "menu" from which to select. No one has to read it all]
Collect
Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ¹s glory, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
++++++++++
Today's Scripture
http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/
Psalm 31; Psalm 35 Isa. 45:18-25; Eph. 6:1-9; Mark 4:35-41
++++++++++
Today we remember: Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester
Psalm 146:4-9 or 84:7-12; Exodus 3:1-12; John 15:5-8,14-16
Almighty God, whose only-begotten Son led captivity captive and gave gifts to your people: Multiply among us faithful pastors, who, like thy holy bishop Wulfstan, will give courage to those who are oppressed and held in bondage; and bring us all, we pray, into the true freedom of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
read more about Wulfstan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Wulstan
From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm
Mark 4:35-41. He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!"
Although I have never been at sea in the midst of a storm, I have traveled around the globe on a student ship, and know the power of the ocean. It doesn't matter how large and well-equipped a ship might appear, in the vastness of the deep that floating piece of wood and metal is a small thing and fragile. This story in Mark reminds me of my five-month voyage, but it also brings to mind what you might call the "original sea": that welter of watery chaos described in the first chapter of Genesis, when the Spirit breathed over the water and calmed it, completing the initial act of creation itself. I think Mark had that moment of Genesis in mind when he recalled this story about Jesus. "Peace! Be still!" It won't work if you read the original Greek, but if you say these words aloud in English they seem almost magical, as if the waters were stilled in the silent gap between Jesus' saying the word Peace and then drawing in his breath to say, "Be still!" It's as if Jesus was giving the world a second birth, once again taming the watery chaos and asserting God's saving presence in the world he made and loved.
++++++++++
Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Luwero (Uganda)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
++++++++++
We continue to observe the week long prayers for Christian Unity:
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/faith/wop-index.html
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)
++++++++++
Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php
By how many paths, in how many manners, through how many means do you reveal your love to us.
St Teresa of Jesus
++++++++++
Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/
Creating Space to Dance Together
When we feel lonely we keep looking for a person or persons who can take our loneliness away. Our lonely hearts cry out, "Please hold me, touch me, speak to me, pay attention to me." But soon we discover that the person we expect to take our loneliness away cannot give us what we ask for. Often that person feels oppressed by our demands and runs away, leaving us in despair. As long as we approach another person from our loneliness, no mature human relationship can develop. Clinging to one another in loneliness is suffocating and eventually becomes destructive. For love to be possible we need the courage to create space between us and to trust that this space allows us to dance together.
++++++++++
From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:
The Third Way of Service: Work
(19) Jesus took on himself the form of a servant. He came not to be
served, but to serve. He went about doing good: healing the sick,
preaching good news to the poor, and binding up the broken hearted.
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.
++++++++++
Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html
"Near Occasions of Grace"
We want to plant ourselves in near occasions of grace, yet we spend all our life avoiding near occasions of sin. Can there be situations that we allow ourselves to enter which will force us to reevaluate everything? That is certainly what the Third World did for me. That’s what joining the Franciscans as a young man did for me, that’s what New Jerusalem did for me. You have to find those situations and contexts and ways of looking out at the world, so you will feel and think differently about reality. It won’t come just from sermons and books. We are converted through new circumstances. Grace best gets at us when our guard is down.
from A Man’s Approach to God
++++++++++
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
What a mystery!
As God's Son Christ was unchangeably the perfect image of the Father; as the architect of creation he had no lack of power; as the lover of mercy he revealed an unsurpassable depth of compassion; as high priest he enjoyed such prestige and dignity that he could stand in the presence of God. Who then could ever find another in any way equal or comparable to him? Ponder his love for us. Condemned to death of his own free will, he released those who crucified him from sentence of death and turned the sin of his murderers into sinners' salvation.
He came to save, yet he had to suffer. Emmanuel, being God, became man. What he was eternally saved us; what he became suffered. He who is in the bosom of the Father is also in the womb of the Virgin. He who lies in the arms of his mother also walks on the wings of the winds. On high he is adored by angels; here below he eats with tax collectors.
Oh what a mystery! I see his wonderful deeds and so proclaim his divinity; I contemplate his sufferings, and so cannot deny his humanity.
Proclus of Constantinople, (~446), patriarch of Constantinople, was renowned as a preacher and wrote much on Mary, the Mother of God.
read more: n.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archbishop_Proclus_of_Constantinople or
www.newadvent.org/cathen/12449b.htm
++++++++++
Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict
http://www.osb.org/rb/
Jan. 19 - May 20 - Sept. 19
Your way of acting should be different from the world's way; the love of Christ must come before all else. You are not to act in anger or nurse a grudge. Rid your heart of all deceit. Never give a hollow greeting of peace or turn away when someone needs your love. Bind yourself to no oath lest it prove false, but speak the truth with heart and tongue.
The end of Benedictine spirituality is to develop a transparent personality. Dissimulation, half answers, vindictive attitudes, a false presentation of self are all barbs in the soul of the monastic. Holiness, this ancient Rule says to a culture that has made crafty packaging high art, has something to do with being who we say we are, claiming our truths, opening our hearts, giving ourselves to the other pure and unglossed. Shakespeare's Hamlet noted once: "A man can smile and smile and be a villain." Benedict is intent on developing people who are what they seem to be.
"Do not repay one bad turn with another (1 Thes 5:15; 1 Pt 3:9)." Do not injure anyone, but bear injuries patiently. "Love your enemies (Mt 5:44; Lk 6:27)." If people curse you, do not curse them back but bless them instead. "Endure persecution for the sake of justice (Mt 5:10)."
A peacemaker's paragraph, this one confronts us with the Gospel stripped and unadorned. Nonviolence, it says, is the center of the monastic life. It doesn't talk about conflict resolution; it says, don't begin the conflict. It doesn't talk about communication barriers; it says, stay gentle even with those who are not gentle with you. It doesn't talk about winning; it talks about loving.
Most of all, perhaps, it offers us no false hope that all these attempts will really change anything. No, it says instead that we must be prepared to bear whatever blows it takes for the sake of justice, quietly, gently, even lovingly with never a blow in return.
A story from the Far East recounts that a vicious general plundered the countryside and terrorized the villagers. He was, they said, particularly cruel to the monks of the place, whom he despised.
One day, at the end of his most recent assault, he was informed by one of his officers that, fearing him, all the people had already fled the town, with the exception of one monk who had remained in his monastery going about the order of the day.
The general was infuriated at the audacity of the monk and sent the soldiers to drag him to his tent.
"Do you not know who I am?" he roared at the monk, "I am he who can run you through with a sword and never bat an eyelash."
But the monk replied quietly, "And do you not know who I am? I am he who can let you run me through with a sword and never bat an eyelash."
Nonviolence plunges the monastic into the core of Christianity and allows for no rationalizations. Monastic spirituality is Christianity to the hilt. It calls for national policies that take the poor into first account; it calls for a work life that does not bully underlings or undercut the competition; it calls for families that talk to one another tenderly; it calls for a foreign policy not based on force. Violence has simply no place in the monastic heart.
"You must not be proud, nor be given to wine (Ti 1:7; I Tm 3:3)." Refrain from too much eating or sleeping, and "from laziness (Rom 12:11)." Do not grumble or speak ill of others.
In the Tao Te Ching it reads:
Be content with what you have;
rejoice in the way things are,
When you realize there is nothing lacking
the whole world belongs to you.
Benedict reminds us, too, that physical control and spiritual perspective are linked: pride and gluttony and laziness are of a piece. We expect too much, we consume too much and we contribute too little. We give ourselves over to ourselves. We become engorged with ourselves and, as a result, there is no room left for the stripped down, stark and simple furniture of the soul.
++++++++++
Collect
Almighty God, whose Son our Savior Jesus Christ is the light of the world: Grant that your people, illumined by your Word and Sacraments, may shine with the radiance of Christ¹s glory, that he may be known, worshipped, and obeyed to the ends of the earth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
++++++++++
Today's Scripture
http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/
Psalm 31; Psalm 35 Isa. 45:18-25; Eph. 6:1-9; Mark 4:35-41
++++++++++
Today we remember: Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester
Psalm 146:4-9 or 84:7-12; Exodus 3:1-12; John 15:5-8,14-16
Almighty God, whose only-begotten Son led captivity captive and gave gifts to your people: Multiply among us faithful pastors, who, like thy holy bishop Wulfstan, will give courage to those who are oppressed and held in bondage; and bring us all, we pray, into the true freedom of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
read more about Wulfstan: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Wulstan
From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm
Mark 4:35-41. He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!"
Although I have never been at sea in the midst of a storm, I have traveled around the globe on a student ship, and know the power of the ocean. It doesn't matter how large and well-equipped a ship might appear, in the vastness of the deep that floating piece of wood and metal is a small thing and fragile. This story in Mark reminds me of my five-month voyage, but it also brings to mind what you might call the "original sea": that welter of watery chaos described in the first chapter of Genesis, when the Spirit breathed over the water and calmed it, completing the initial act of creation itself. I think Mark had that moment of Genesis in mind when he recalled this story about Jesus. "Peace! Be still!" It won't work if you read the original Greek, but if you say these words aloud in English they seem almost magical, as if the waters were stilled in the silent gap between Jesus' saying the word Peace and then drawing in his breath to say, "Be still!" It's as if Jesus was giving the world a second birth, once again taming the watery chaos and asserting God's saving presence in the world he made and loved.
++++++++++
Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Luwero (Uganda)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
++++++++++
We continue to observe the week long prayers for Christian Unity:
http://wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/faith/wop-index.html
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)
++++++++++
Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php
By how many paths, in how many manners, through how many means do you reveal your love to us.
St Teresa of Jesus
++++++++++
Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/
Creating Space to Dance Together
When we feel lonely we keep looking for a person or persons who can take our loneliness away. Our lonely hearts cry out, "Please hold me, touch me, speak to me, pay attention to me." But soon we discover that the person we expect to take our loneliness away cannot give us what we ask for. Often that person feels oppressed by our demands and runs away, leaving us in despair. As long as we approach another person from our loneliness, no mature human relationship can develop. Clinging to one another in loneliness is suffocating and eventually becomes destructive. For love to be possible we need the courage to create space between us and to trust that this space allows us to dance together.
++++++++++
From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:
The Third Way of Service: Work
(19) Jesus took on himself the form of a servant. He came not to be
served, but to serve. He went about doing good: healing the sick,
preaching good news to the poor, and binding up the broken hearted.
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.
++++++++++
Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html
"Near Occasions of Grace"
We want to plant ourselves in near occasions of grace, yet we spend all our life avoiding near occasions of sin. Can there be situations that we allow ourselves to enter which will force us to reevaluate everything? That is certainly what the Third World did for me. That’s what joining the Franciscans as a young man did for me, that’s what New Jerusalem did for me. You have to find those situations and contexts and ways of looking out at the world, so you will feel and think differently about reality. It won’t come just from sermons and books. We are converted through new circumstances. Grace best gets at us when our guard is down.
from A Man’s Approach to God
++++++++++
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
What a mystery!
As God's Son Christ was unchangeably the perfect image of the Father; as the architect of creation he had no lack of power; as the lover of mercy he revealed an unsurpassable depth of compassion; as high priest he enjoyed such prestige and dignity that he could stand in the presence of God. Who then could ever find another in any way equal or comparable to him? Ponder his love for us. Condemned to death of his own free will, he released those who crucified him from sentence of death and turned the sin of his murderers into sinners' salvation.
He came to save, yet he had to suffer. Emmanuel, being God, became man. What he was eternally saved us; what he became suffered. He who is in the bosom of the Father is also in the womb of the Virgin. He who lies in the arms of his mother also walks on the wings of the winds. On high he is adored by angels; here below he eats with tax collectors.
Oh what a mystery! I see his wonderful deeds and so proclaim his divinity; I contemplate his sufferings, and so cannot deny his humanity.
Proclus of Constantinople, (~446), patriarch of Constantinople, was renowned as a preacher and wrote much on Mary, the Mother of God.
read more: n.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archbishop_Proclus_of_Constantinople or
www.newadvent.org/cathen/12449b.htm
++++++++++
Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict
http://www.osb.org/rb/
Jan. 19 - May 20 - Sept. 19
Your way of acting should be different from the world's way; the love of Christ must come before all else. You are not to act in anger or nurse a grudge. Rid your heart of all deceit. Never give a hollow greeting of peace or turn away when someone needs your love. Bind yourself to no oath lest it prove false, but speak the truth with heart and tongue.
The end of Benedictine spirituality is to develop a transparent personality. Dissimulation, half answers, vindictive attitudes, a false presentation of self are all barbs in the soul of the monastic. Holiness, this ancient Rule says to a culture that has made crafty packaging high art, has something to do with being who we say we are, claiming our truths, opening our hearts, giving ourselves to the other pure and unglossed. Shakespeare's Hamlet noted once: "A man can smile and smile and be a villain." Benedict is intent on developing people who are what they seem to be.
"Do not repay one bad turn with another (1 Thes 5:15; 1 Pt 3:9)." Do not injure anyone, but bear injuries patiently. "Love your enemies (Mt 5:44; Lk 6:27)." If people curse you, do not curse them back but bless them instead. "Endure persecution for the sake of justice (Mt 5:10)."
A peacemaker's paragraph, this one confronts us with the Gospel stripped and unadorned. Nonviolence, it says, is the center of the monastic life. It doesn't talk about conflict resolution; it says, don't begin the conflict. It doesn't talk about communication barriers; it says, stay gentle even with those who are not gentle with you. It doesn't talk about winning; it talks about loving.
Most of all, perhaps, it offers us no false hope that all these attempts will really change anything. No, it says instead that we must be prepared to bear whatever blows it takes for the sake of justice, quietly, gently, even lovingly with never a blow in return.
A story from the Far East recounts that a vicious general plundered the countryside and terrorized the villagers. He was, they said, particularly cruel to the monks of the place, whom he despised.
One day, at the end of his most recent assault, he was informed by one of his officers that, fearing him, all the people had already fled the town, with the exception of one monk who had remained in his monastery going about the order of the day.
The general was infuriated at the audacity of the monk and sent the soldiers to drag him to his tent.
"Do you not know who I am?" he roared at the monk, "I am he who can run you through with a sword and never bat an eyelash."
But the monk replied quietly, "And do you not know who I am? I am he who can let you run me through with a sword and never bat an eyelash."
Nonviolence plunges the monastic into the core of Christianity and allows for no rationalizations. Monastic spirituality is Christianity to the hilt. It calls for national policies that take the poor into first account; it calls for a work life that does not bully underlings or undercut the competition; it calls for families that talk to one another tenderly; it calls for a foreign policy not based on force. Violence has simply no place in the monastic heart.
"You must not be proud, nor be given to wine (Ti 1:7; I Tm 3:3)." Refrain from too much eating or sleeping, and "from laziness (Rom 12:11)." Do not grumble or speak ill of others.
In the Tao Te Ching it reads:
Be content with what you have;
rejoice in the way things are,
When you realize there is nothing lacking
the whole world belongs to you.
Benedict reminds us, too, that physical control and spiritual perspective are linked: pride and gluttony and laziness are of a piece. We expect too much, we consume too much and we contribute too little. We give ourselves over to ourselves. We become engorged with ourselves and, as a result, there is no room left for the stripped down, stark and simple furniture of the soul.
++++++++++
posted by Gloriamarie Amalfitano @ 10:22 AM
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