06/02/07 Week of Epiphany 5
[Please remember this is a sort of "menu" from which to select. No one has to pray it all]
If you would like these meditations to come directly to your in box, please click here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KnitternunMeditation/
Collect
Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
++++++++++
Today's Scripture http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/
Psalm 78:1-39; Psalm 78:40-72; Isa. 59:1-15a; 2 Tim. 1:1-14; Mark 9:42-50
++++++++++
From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm
Mark 9:42-50. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off...
What would I be willing to give up in order to do the will of God? "Oh, anything!" I rush to say--but then remember Peter made the same confident assertion about himself--then he was found wanting. We are seldom as brave as we hope to be.
Of course, eventually all of us will lose both our hands--and everything else. We'll lose our lives: no one is here forever. We're all visiting. Sooner or later, we have to give it all up, our good loves and our dangerous ones alike. We're not keeping any of them.
Notice that this passage assumes that anything, good or bad, can be the cause of sin. Anything can get between God and me, if I let it. I can make anything an idol if I forget where I got it.
God has showered us with gifts: our bodies, our families, our skills and delights, this lovely earth. All is for our joy. But our joy depends on remembering always that it is temporary. We must savor our delight now, give thanks to God now, wring every last drop of goodness from the world's gifts now--while there is still time. Because we can't keep them; we won't even keep ourselves! We can surrender everything in sorrow and bitterness or with gratitude: that choice alone is ours. The choice of holding onto them is not.
++++++++++
Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm
Feb 6 is another feria, a free day. Letus think on these words
Not me . . .
you can't be speaking to me . . .
can you?
after all,
i am a selfish person
in a culture which
worships the self;
i've never felt the brush
of seraphim wings
(though my beloved
did caress my cheek
this morning);
no hot coals
have singed my soul
(yet, there are
the kisses
my children
give me);
and it is easier
to pull in my fears,
clean them up,
and store them away
for tomorrow
than to let them down
into the deep waters
of discipleship
and servanthood.
you can't be calling me . . .
can you?
(c) 2007 Thom M. Shuman
Thom M. Shuman
Greenhills Community Church, Presbyterian
Cincinnati, Ohio
www.occasionalsightings.blogspot.com
www.prayersfortoday.blogspot.com
www.lectionaryliturgies.blogspot.com
++++++++++
Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Maryland (Prov. III, U.S.)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
++++++++++
Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php
In the evening of this life you will be examined in love. Learn then to love as God desires to be loved and abandon your own ways of acting.
St John of the Cross
Sayings of Light and Love, 60.
++++++++++
Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html
On Silence
Having withdrawn from the palace to the solitary life, abba Arsenius prayed and heard a voice saying to him, "Arsenius, flee, be silent, pray always, for these are the source of sinlessness."
A brother in scetis went to ask for a word from abba Moses and the old man said to him, "Go and sit in your cell and your cell will teach you everything."
Abba Nilus said, "The arrows of the enemy cannot touch one who loves quietness; but he who moves about in a crowd will often be wounded."
++++++++++
Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/
Returning to God's Ever-Present Love
We often confuse unconditional love with unconditional approval. God loves us without conditions but does not approve of every human behavior. God doesn't approve of betrayal, violence, hatred, suspicion, and all other expressions of evil, because they all contradict the love God wants to instill in the human heart. Evil is the absence of God's love. Evil does not belong to God.
God's unconditional love means that God continues to love us even when we say or think evil things. God continues to wait for us as a loving parent waits for the return of a lost child. It is important for us to hold on to the truth that God never gives up loving us even when God is saddened by what we do. That truth will help us to return to God's ever-present love.
++++++++++
From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:
Day Six - the First Aim (Cont.)
The primary aim for us as Tertiaries is therefore to make Christ known. This
shapes our lives and attitudes to reflect the obedience of those whom our
Lord chose to be with him and sent out as his witnesses. Like them, by word
and example, we bear witness to Christ in our own immediate environment and
pray and work for the fulfillment of his command to make disciples of all
nations.
God, you resist the proud and give grace to the humble: help us not to think
proudly, but to serve you with the 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
Most high, glorious God! Bring light to the darkness of our hearts. Give us
right faith, convinced hope, and perfect charity, wisdom and understanding
that we may do your holy and true will.
++++++++++
Upper Room Daily Reflection http://www.upperroom.org/reflections/
We Are the Body of Christ
A few months ago I got to work on a special print project here at work. I was the project editor for a booklet that is being published around the world for people who are facing serious illnesses such as HIV and AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. This booklet, Prayers for Encouragement: Hope for Persons Living with HIV and AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis, and Other Serious Diseases, has just reached us, having been printed in December in South Africa.
HIV and AIDS is one of those "us vs. them" situations. When we first learned of AIDS, it was a disease of "those gay men." Then it became a disease of "those drug addicts." Today we hear of the devastating effects of HIV and AIDS on "those people in Africa."
Any time I think "us vs. them," I am shielded, removed from a connection with my sisters and brothers. When I think "us vs. them," I don't acknowledge my connection to that situation. I can detach, put it on the back burner, offer a cursory prayer for "them" and one of gratitude that I'm not one of "them."
Where did I learn "us vs. them"? Not from my spiritual teachers. Jesus didn't teach "us vs. them." Jesus was on the side of "them," hanging out and ministering to and with the outcasts. Jesus calls me to be near to those who are suffering -- even if I think I don't know any of them -- because they are my sisters and brothers, precious children of God.
Today, I don't think we can afford an "us vs. them" mentality. Whether it is HIV and AIDS or other diseases of poverty, war, famine, homelessness, etc., we, the Body of Christ are affected.
I saw a poster from the Church of Southern Africa. "The Church Has AIDS," the poster said. And it is true. The Church has HIV and AIDS. The Church has malaria and tuberculosis. The Church is fighting for its life in war-torn Sudan and is being blown up in central Baghdad. In The Church, the distinctions between "us" and "them" are dismantled, for we are all one in Christ.
We, the Body of Christ, have HIV and AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis. We, the Body of Christ are facing poverty and war. May I -- may you and I -- join our sisters and brothers every day through actions of prayer, compassion, and generosity.
+++++++++++
Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html
"The Promise of God"
Our age has come to expect satisfaction. We have grown up in an absolutely unique period when having and possessing and accomplishing have been real options. We have the illusion of fulfillment and an even more dangerous illusion that we have a right to expect fulfillment- and fulfillment now- as long as we are clever enough, quick enough and pray or work hard enough for our goals. We want to be energized by the bird in the hand; but the word of God and the history of those who have struggled with that word would seem to tell us that we are, in fact, energized much more by the bird in the bush. God’s people are led forward by promises. Promises, with all their daring and risk, empower the hearts of people. God’s people are called through the enticement of the call itself, much more than through the direct vision of God’s joy. The Lord is “Our Justice” not by fulfilling us but by calling us from where we are. God restores us not by making it happen but by promising us that it will. God tells us who we are by telling us who we are to become. Somehow that is enough. It works! At least it works for those who can learn how to believe: “Blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled” (Luke 1:45).
from Sojourners, “The Energy of Promise”
++++++++++
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
God provides
Was it not God whose first request to us is that we should show generosity in return? Having already received so much from him and hoping for so much more, we should surely be ashamed to refuse God the one thing he asks of us, which is to show generosity to others. When he, our Lord and God, is not ashamed to be called our Father, can we repudiate our own kith and kin?
Let us follow the first and most important law of God. He sends down rain on the righteous and on sinners and makes his sun rise for all alike. For creatures that live on land he has spread out the earth, the springs, the rivers, and the forests. He has given the air to the birds and water to the fish. He has provided all with the necessities of life in great abundance. They were not meant to be seized by force, limited by law, or separated by boundaries. And although everything was given to be enjoyed by all in common, this did not cause the supply to become less plentiful. To all who were equal by nature God wanted to give equal gifts and thus to show the greatness of his generosity.
Gregory Nazianzen, (329 - 389) was one of the three great Cappadocian Fathers whose preaching helped to restore the Nicene faith and led to its final acceptance by the Council of Constantinople in 381.
++++++++++
Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/
Chapter 7: On Humility
The ninth degree of humility
is that a monk restrain his tongue and keep silence,
not speaking until he is questioned.
For the Scripture shows
that "in much speaking there is no escape from sin" (Prov. 10:19)
and that "the talkative man is not stable on the earth" (Ps. 139:12).
Commentary: http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html
When arrogance erupts anywhere, it erupts invariably in speech. Our opinions become the rule. Our ideas become the goal. Our judgments become the norm. Our word becomes the last word, the only word. To be the last one into a conversation, instead of the first, is an unheard of assault on our egos. Benedict says, over and over, listen, learn, be open to the other. That is the ground of humility. And humility is the ground of growth and graced relationships on earth. Humility is what makes the powerful accessible to the powerless. Humility is what allows poor nations a demand on rich ones. Humility is what enables the learned to learn from the wise.
++++++++++
If you would like these meditations to come directly to your in box, please click here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KnitternunMeditation/
Collect
Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sins, and give us the liberty of that abundant life which you have made known to us in your Son our Savior Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
++++++++++
Today's Scripture http://www.satucket.com/lectionary/
Psalm 78:1-39; Psalm 78:40-72; Isa. 59:1-15a; 2 Tim. 1:1-14; Mark 9:42-50
++++++++++
From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm
Mark 9:42-50. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off...
What would I be willing to give up in order to do the will of God? "Oh, anything!" I rush to say--but then remember Peter made the same confident assertion about himself--then he was found wanting. We are seldom as brave as we hope to be.
Of course, eventually all of us will lose both our hands--and everything else. We'll lose our lives: no one is here forever. We're all visiting. Sooner or later, we have to give it all up, our good loves and our dangerous ones alike. We're not keeping any of them.
Notice that this passage assumes that anything, good or bad, can be the cause of sin. Anything can get between God and me, if I let it. I can make anything an idol if I forget where I got it.
God has showered us with gifts: our bodies, our families, our skills and delights, this lovely earth. All is for our joy. But our joy depends on remembering always that it is temporary. We must savor our delight now, give thanks to God now, wring every last drop of goodness from the world's gifts now--while there is still time. Because we can't keep them; we won't even keep ourselves! We can surrender everything in sorrow and bitterness or with gratitude: that choice alone is ours. The choice of holding onto them is not.
++++++++++
Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm
Feb 6 is another feria, a free day. Letus think on these words
Not me . . .
you can't be speaking to me . . .
can you?
after all,
i am a selfish person
in a culture which
worships the self;
i've never felt the brush
of seraphim wings
(though my beloved
did caress my cheek
this morning);
no hot coals
have singed my soul
(yet, there are
the kisses
my children
give me);
and it is easier
to pull in my fears,
clean them up,
and store them away
for tomorrow
than to let them down
into the deep waters
of discipleship
and servanthood.
you can't be calling me . . .
can you?
(c) 2007 Thom M. Shuman
Thom M. Shuman
Greenhills Community Church, Presbyterian
Cincinnati, Ohio
www.occasionalsightings.blogspot.com
www.prayersfortoday.blogspot.com
www.lectionaryliturgies.blogspot.com
++++++++++
Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Maryland (Prov. III, U.S.)
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acp/index.cfm
++++++++++
Carmelite.com: Reflections http://www.carmelite.com/spirituality/reflection.php
In the evening of this life you will be examined in love. Learn then to love as God desires to be loved and abandon your own ways of acting.
St John of the Cross
Sayings of Light and Love, 60.
++++++++++
Reading from the Desert Christians http://www.cin.org/dsrtftin.html
On Silence
Having withdrawn from the palace to the solitary life, abba Arsenius prayed and heard a voice saying to him, "Arsenius, flee, be silent, pray always, for these are the source of sinlessness."
A brother in scetis went to ask for a word from abba Moses and the old man said to him, "Go and sit in your cell and your cell will teach you everything."
Abba Nilus said, "The arrows of the enemy cannot touch one who loves quietness; but he who moves about in a crowd will often be wounded."
++++++++++
Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/
Returning to God's Ever-Present Love
We often confuse unconditional love with unconditional approval. God loves us without conditions but does not approve of every human behavior. God doesn't approve of betrayal, violence, hatred, suspicion, and all other expressions of evil, because they all contradict the love God wants to instill in the human heart. Evil is the absence of God's love. Evil does not belong to God.
God's unconditional love means that God continues to love us even when we say or think evil things. God continues to wait for us as a loving parent waits for the return of a lost child. It is important for us to hold on to the truth that God never gives up loving us even when God is saddened by what we do. That truth will help us to return to God's ever-present love.
++++++++++
From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:
Day Six - the First Aim (Cont.)
The primary aim for us as Tertiaries is therefore to make Christ known. This
shapes our lives and attitudes to reflect the obedience of those whom our
Lord chose to be with him and sent out as his witnesses. Like them, by word
and example, we bear witness to Christ in our own immediate environment and
pray and work for the fulfillment of his command to make disciples of all
nations.
God, you resist the proud and give grace to the humble: help us not to think
proudly, but to serve you with the 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
Most high, glorious God! Bring light to the darkness of our hearts. Give us
right faith, convinced hope, and perfect charity, wisdom and understanding
that we may do your holy and true will.
++++++++++
Upper Room Daily Reflection http://www.upperroom.org/reflections/
We Are the Body of Christ
A few months ago I got to work on a special print project here at work. I was the project editor for a booklet that is being published around the world for people who are facing serious illnesses such as HIV and AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis. This booklet, Prayers for Encouragement: Hope for Persons Living with HIV and AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis, and Other Serious Diseases, has just reached us, having been printed in December in South Africa.
HIV and AIDS is one of those "us vs. them" situations. When we first learned of AIDS, it was a disease of "those gay men." Then it became a disease of "those drug addicts." Today we hear of the devastating effects of HIV and AIDS on "those people in Africa."
Any time I think "us vs. them," I am shielded, removed from a connection with my sisters and brothers. When I think "us vs. them," I don't acknowledge my connection to that situation. I can detach, put it on the back burner, offer a cursory prayer for "them" and one of gratitude that I'm not one of "them."
Where did I learn "us vs. them"? Not from my spiritual teachers. Jesus didn't teach "us vs. them." Jesus was on the side of "them," hanging out and ministering to and with the outcasts. Jesus calls me to be near to those who are suffering -- even if I think I don't know any of them -- because they are my sisters and brothers, precious children of God.
Today, I don't think we can afford an "us vs. them" mentality. Whether it is HIV and AIDS or other diseases of poverty, war, famine, homelessness, etc., we, the Body of Christ are affected.
I saw a poster from the Church of Southern Africa. "The Church Has AIDS," the poster said. And it is true. The Church has HIV and AIDS. The Church has malaria and tuberculosis. The Church is fighting for its life in war-torn Sudan and is being blown up in central Baghdad. In The Church, the distinctions between "us" and "them" are dismantled, for we are all one in Christ.
We, the Body of Christ, have HIV and AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis. We, the Body of Christ are facing poverty and war. May I -- may you and I -- join our sisters and brothers every day through actions of prayer, compassion, and generosity.
+++++++++++
Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html
"The Promise of God"
Our age has come to expect satisfaction. We have grown up in an absolutely unique period when having and possessing and accomplishing have been real options. We have the illusion of fulfillment and an even more dangerous illusion that we have a right to expect fulfillment- and fulfillment now- as long as we are clever enough, quick enough and pray or work hard enough for our goals. We want to be energized by the bird in the hand; but the word of God and the history of those who have struggled with that word would seem to tell us that we are, in fact, energized much more by the bird in the bush. God’s people are led forward by promises. Promises, with all their daring and risk, empower the hearts of people. God’s people are called through the enticement of the call itself, much more than through the direct vision of God’s joy. The Lord is “Our Justice” not by fulfilling us but by calling us from where we are. God restores us not by making it happen but by promising us that it will. God tells us who we are by telling us who we are to become. Somehow that is enough. It works! At least it works for those who can learn how to believe: “Blessed is she who believed that the promise made her by the Lord would be fulfilled” (Luke 1:45).
from Sojourners, “The Energy of Promise”
++++++++++
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
God provides
Was it not God whose first request to us is that we should show generosity in return? Having already received so much from him and hoping for so much more, we should surely be ashamed to refuse God the one thing he asks of us, which is to show generosity to others. When he, our Lord and God, is not ashamed to be called our Father, can we repudiate our own kith and kin?
Let us follow the first and most important law of God. He sends down rain on the righteous and on sinners and makes his sun rise for all alike. For creatures that live on land he has spread out the earth, the springs, the rivers, and the forests. He has given the air to the birds and water to the fish. He has provided all with the necessities of life in great abundance. They were not meant to be seized by force, limited by law, or separated by boundaries. And although everything was given to be enjoyed by all in common, this did not cause the supply to become less plentiful. To all who were equal by nature God wanted to give equal gifts and thus to show the greatness of his generosity.
Gregory Nazianzen, (329 - 389) was one of the three great Cappadocian Fathers whose preaching helped to restore the Nicene faith and led to its final acceptance by the Council of Constantinople in 381.
++++++++++
Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/
Chapter 7: On Humility
The ninth degree of humility
is that a monk restrain his tongue and keep silence,
not speaking until he is questioned.
For the Scripture shows
that "in much speaking there is no escape from sin" (Prov. 10:19)
and that "the talkative man is not stable on the earth" (Ps. 139:12).
Commentary: http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html
When arrogance erupts anywhere, it erupts invariably in speech. Our opinions become the rule. Our ideas become the goal. Our judgments become the norm. Our word becomes the last word, the only word. To be the last one into a conversation, instead of the first, is an unheard of assault on our egos. Benedict says, over and over, listen, learn, be open to the other. That is the ground of humility. And humility is the ground of growth and graced relationships on earth. Humility is what makes the powerful accessible to the powerless. Humility is what allows poor nations a demand on rich ones. Humility is what enables the learned to learn from the wise.
++++++++++
posted by Gloriamarie Amalfitano @ 8:19 AM
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