19/02/07, week of the last Sunday after Epiphany
[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:
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Collect
O God, who before the passion of your onlybegotten Son revealed his glory upon the holy mountain: Grant to us that we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory; 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 25 * 9, 15; Deut 6:10-15; Hebrews 1:1-14; John 1:1-18
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From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm
John 1:1-18. And from his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace.
My grandmother took me aside when I was little to give me advice. "You're not supposed to talk about the things you do well or the things you have," she said. "That's bragging. It's not nice."
Bragging? I had never heard the word. It didn't sound nice. Whatever a braggart was, I didn't want to be one. I embarked on the course most young women do: deprecate our own achievements, our own gifts. When it came time for interviews with those who would decide whether or not I could go to seminary, I had a hard time. "And what are your strengths?" one of the interviewers asked with interest.
"Um," I said, uncertain how to proceed. "Well, I've always done well in school." I was very young. They were gentle with me, those good people. Together we found a way to discuss the things I already had that might make a priest and what I needed, and soon I was on my way. The bishop asked me for my thoughts and I mumbled about feeling unworthy. He shushed me--none of us is worthy, he said, God makes us worthy, and we talked of other things.
Never claim gifts you don't have: people can tell. But always accept and quietly own the ones you do have, remembering where they all come from. That's not bragging.
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Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm
Today is a feria, a free day.
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Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Mbale (Uganda)
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 Love
Abba Agathon said, "If I could meet a leper, give him my body and take his, I should be very happy." That is perfect charity. It was also said of him that when he came into the town one day to sell his goods, he met a sick traveller lying in the public place with no one to care for him. The old man rented a room and lived with him there, working with his hands to pay the rent and spending the rest on the sick man's needs. He stayed there four months until the sick man was well again. Then he went back to his cell in peace.
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Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/
The Basis of Our Security
What is the basis of our security? When we start thinking about that question, we may give many answers: success, money, friends, property, popularity, family, connections, insurance, and so on. We may not always think that any of these forms the basis of our security, but our actions or feelings may tell us otherwise. When we start losing our money, our friends, or our popularity, our anxiety often reveals how deeply our sense of security is rooted in these things.
A spiritual life is a life in which our security is based not in any created things, good as they may be, but in God, who is everlasting love. We probably will never be completely free from our attachment to the temporal world, but if we want to live in that world in a truly free way, we'd better not belong to it. "You cannot be the slave both of God and of money" (Luke 16:13).
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From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:
Day Nineteen - The Third Way of Service: Work
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.
God, 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 to set
our minds only on Christ Jesus and him crucified; to whom with you and the
Holy Spirit be all glory for ever. Amen.
Almighty, eternal, just and merciful God,
grant us in our misery [the grace]
to do for You alone
what we know You want us to do,
and always
to desire what pleases You.
Thus,
inwardly cleansed,
interiorly enlightened,
and inflamed by the fire of the Holy spirit,
may we be able to follow
in the footprints of Your beloved Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ.
And,
by Your grace alone
may we make our way to You,
Most High
Who live and rule
in perfect Trinity and simple Unity,
and are glorified
God all-powerful
forever and ever.
Amen.
From: http://www.osfsisterswpeoria.org/prayers/letter.htm
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Upper Room Daily Reflection http://www.upperroom.org/reflections/
LENT SERVES as our annual invitation to come closer to God. It provides a time to look at our lives and ourselves, not so we may criticize ourselves more harshly but so we can identify the obstructions that keep us from God. What keeps us from feeling the presence of the divine in our every day? How do we hide from God, and why? Lent gives us a chance to look at such obstructions and to move them gently away so that we can come closer to the Love that gives us life, the Love whose triumph we will celebrate on Easter morning.
- Sarah Parsons
A Clearing Season
From page 8 of A Clearing Season by Sarah Parsons. Copyright © 2005 by Sarah Parsons.
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Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html
"The Limits of Liberalism"
We've reached the limits of liberalism. Liberalism is basically a philosophy that proclaims the rights and the freedoms and the growth and the development of the individual. My rights, my career, my wholeness, my options. Vatican II really affirmed the agenda, protecting the person, the growth and freedom of the individual Christian. And we had to run with it for twenty-five years. We tasted its fruits, thank God, and I don't want to go back on any of those. But we've reached the limits of it. It finally moves to a place where all that we have are individuals seeking their own growth, their own happiness, their own development. Most cultures since the beginning of time would not share this worldview. There's little possibility there for the common good, for opening myself to what's good for the whole parish, the whole diocese, the whole people. The common good is what's good for the world, not just what's good for America or good for Christianity. One wonders if our people have forgotten how to think that way. It was once the centerpiece of Catholic vision and morality.
from Letting Go: A Spirituality of Subtraction
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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 teachings of God
To preserve men and women from sin and from being unworthy of himself God commanded them to love him and taught them to be just in their dealings with other people. By the Ten Commandments he prepared them to live in friendship with himself and in harmony with one another. This was simply for their own good and it was all God asked of them. It conferred great glory on them and gave them the friendship with God they had lacked, but it did not benefit God, for he had no need of their love. The need was all on their side: they needed the glory of God and could obtain it only by serving him. This is why Moses said to the people: Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him. In this your life consists.
And so God has abolished the laws which were given as a sign of their servitude but has amplified the natural laws which are of universal application and befit people who are free. This he has done in his generosity by freely making us his children, so that we might know him as our Father, love him with our whole heart, and unswervingly follow his Word.
Irenaeus of Lyons, (140 - 200), bishop of Lyons, wrote a momumental work Against the Heresies. At the heart of his theology is a vision of the unity and the the recapitulation of all things in Christ.
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Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/
Chapter 16: How the Work of God Is to Be Performed During the Day
"Seven times in the day," says the Prophet,
"I have rendered praise to You" (Ps. 118:164).
Now that sacred number of seven will be fulfilled by us
if we perform the Offices of our service
at the time of the Morning Office,
of Prime, of Terce, of Sext, of None,
of Vespers and of Compline,
since it was of these day Hours that he said,
"Seven times in the day I have rendered praise to You."
For as to the Night Office the same Prophet says,
"In the middle of the night I arose to glorify You" (Ps. 118:62).
Let us therefore bring our tribute of praise to our Creator
"for the judgments of His justice" (Ps. 118:164)
at these times:
the Morning Office, Prime, Terce, Sext, None,
Vespers and Compline;
and in the night let us arise to glorify Him.
Commentary: http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html
site still needs to be updated.
Commentary by Gloriamarie
We may wonder what relevance this section of the Rule may have for us today. Who among us has the time to pray 7 different times during the day? We don't, of course. Even in some modern day Benedictine monasteries they have modified this section of the Rule, which is OK because Benedict did allow for the needs of each monastery. For us, though, perhaps the lesson we can take from todays reading of the RB is simply this: we must pray. We must set aside a few moments in the day when our attention is totally on God's and we are completely His. Pray a Psalm, the Our Father or use this Daily Meditation. But reclaim from the demands of the world time for the Most High.
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The Merton Reflection for the Week of February 19, 2007
Lent is our “Holy Spring”
Even the darkest moments of the liturgy are filled with joy, and Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lenten fast, is a day of happiness, a Christian feast. It cannot be otherwise, as it forms part of the great Easter cycle.
The Paschal Mystery is above all the mystery of life in which the Church, by celebrating the death and resurrection of Christ, enters into the Kingdom of Life which He has established once for all by His definitive victory over sin and death. We must remember the original meaning of Lent, as the ver sacrum, the Church’s “holy spring” in which the catechumens were prepared for their baptism, and public penitents were made ready by penance for their restoration to the sacramental life in a communion with the rest of the Church. Lent is then not a season of punishment so much as one of healing.
Thomas Merton. Seasons of Celebration. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1950: 113
Thought to Remember:
Lent is a preparation to rejoice in God’s love. And this preparation consists in receiving the gift of God’s mercy—a gift which we receive insofar as we open our hearts to it, casting out what cannot remain in the same room with mercy.
Seasons of Celebration: 116
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From http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/sermons_speeches/070218.htm
Archbisop's sermon given at Zanzibar Cathedral
Sunday 18th February
'Amazing Grace'
Once again may I thank you for your welcome and may I give you the
assurance of the love and prayers of your brothers and sisters in the
Church of England.
This morning I am going to speak about the three readings from the
bible that we have heard and I’m going to discuss them backwards –
I’m going to begin with the Gospel. The Gospel tells us the story of
a blind man who came to see, and today it is very appropriate that we
think about how God makes us see the truth. In the special prayer for
this morning – in the collect – we remembered the transfiguration of
Jesus when his disciples saw his glory and in that great hymn we sang
at the beginning of the service, we sang ‘I once was lost but now am
found; was blind but now I see’. God, through Jesus Christ, opens our
eyes, he makes us see.
And what is it that we cannot see until God touches us? Today we
remember the abolition of the slave trade. And that reminds us that
for hundreds and hundreds of years – in fact for thousands of years –
people did not see the evil of slavery. Around them human beings were
suffering in terrible ways and yet somehow people did not see, even
Christians did not see. It is possible to look at another human being
and yet not see what their real need is and what their real suffering
is. And gradually, as time went on, Christians began to have their
eyes opened. Africans, Americans, Englishmen, all in the light of
their faith began to see that this suffering and this injustice could
not be tolerated. Sometimes people talk as if in the 18th century
there was an ‘Enlightenment’ across Europe and America; a dawning, a
new seeing. But the real enlightenment was in this new seeing of
human dignity, human suffering, human injustice.
And so one thing which might reflect upon today is what it is that we
now are blind to; who is it now whose suffering we cannot see, cannot
understand? In some societies it may be women or old people, it may
be children. It may be minorities of one kind or another. It may be
that in our wealthy countries – it is the case in our wealthy
countries – that we do not see the reality of suffering and injustice
in so much of the world. And we may not know for a long time just how
many things we have not seen. But at least we can begin to pray
‘Lord, open our eyes’.
It can take a long time; the writer of the hymn Amazing Grace, as
many of you know, was someone who had been a slave trader. And even
when he was converted to faith in Jesus Christ, for a while after
that he went on selling slaves. Slowly, the Gospel opened his eyes to
the sufferings of those alongside him. So, we pray ‘Lord open our
eyes’ and we pray ‘Lord, let it not take the whole of our lives for
our eyes to be opened.’
But what is it that opens our eyes? It is not statistics, it is not
ideas, it is love. And so I turn to the second reading today, from St
Paul. Here St Paul spells out what love means, and if you listen to
that reading carefully you will here St Paul saying ‘this is how I
have been loved.’ So often in his letters, St Paul says to us ‘I did
not deserve the love of god to come to me.’ And yet I know that I am
loved’. St Paul himself could have written Amazing Grace, because St
Paul celebrates love as the action of God towards us out of God’s own
fullness and God’s own freedom.
And what happens when I learn at last that I am loved? What happens
when I learn that I am loved without having earned the love and
without having paid for it? I learn then that I depend completely on
God; I learn that I do not need to strike out at other people to make
myself safe; I know that I am poor and needy like every other person.
Love makes me open my hand: the hand that I’ve tried to close on my
possessions, my safety, my righteousness and holiness has to be
opened by God. And when God opens my hand and my heart, then I can
turn to my neighbour, I can see my neighbour’s suffering, my eyes are
opened – ‘I was blind and now can see.’ I become a place where the
love of God is at home.
So it is love that opens our eyes, it is love that makes us see. To
go back to the Gospel for just a moment; when the blind man’s eyes
are opened, what is the first thing that he sees? The first thing
that he sees is the face of Jesus. And when he has sent he face of
Jesus, he can see everything else in a different way. And so when
love opens our eyes, what is it that we see? When love opens our eyes
we can see God’s love; we can see what we have never seen before –
the free love of God towards us in the face of Jesus Christ.
And because of that we can see ourselves in a new way; we see
ourselves as helpless, as poor and hungry in the presence of god’s
love. And yet we see ourselves as infinitely precious in god’s sight.
And then because of that we see others in a new way. Not our enemies,
not people who are threatening us, but gifts from god; and se we
begin to be able to set about the task of setting others free. The
chains, the shackles of our own fears fall away. ‘Twas Grace that
taught my heart to fear and Grace my fears relieved’, says the hymn.
First of all when I see God’s love, I may be frightened – I haven’t
deserved this - how do I receive it? And then it is the same Grace
that relieves and takes away those fears.
So. The love of God teaches us to see; it teaches us to see God in
the face of Jesus Christ. It teaches us to see ourselves in the light
of that love; it teaches us to see our neighbour as the object of
that same love and that is when the whole face of the earth is
transfigured and enlightened by the love of God. And that brings me
to the first reading that we had this morning; God has saved Noah and
his family from the flood and, as they go back to cover the face of
the earth afresh, a new light appears in the sky; God sets in heaven
the promise that his love will endure. The rainbow in the sky tells
us that God has promised not to destroy the earth, tells us that God
has promised to be faithful to his own nature.
And so we Christians who seek to make the love of God, let the love
of God be real in our lives; we look for signs that remind us; signs
of the covenant. We are here this morning to celebrate Holy Communion
and through the history of the church, Holy Communion has been seen
among many other things, as a sign of God’s promise. When the bread
and the wine are lifted up at this table this morning, it is as if
there is a rainbow in the sky. Here as the bread and the wine of
Christ’s body and blood are shared, here is the promise of God’s
faithfulness. Here the face of Jesus is turned towards us once again.
Jesus tells us to do this in memory of him. We are to remember who he
is and remember what his love is, and if we can speak like this it is
as if God, seeing the face of Jesus, remembers who he is. As the
Bible sometimes puts it, he remembers, he brings to mind his
promises. And so we learn yet again what is the love that has opened
our eyes, what is the love that has set us free.
The man who wrote Amazing Grace lived to be a very old man. For many
years he worked as a priest in London. His teaching, his sermons his
hymns, inspired many in the struggle against slavery. But in old age
he said to one of his friends these words: ‘I am a very old man and
my memory has gone. But I remember two things: that I am a great
sinner and that Jesus is a great saviour.’ Now when we come to Holy
Communion, brothers and sisters, that is what we are to remember.
We are great sinners, we live so often in blindness; we do not truly
see ourselves; we hide from those things in ourselves which we can’t
manage. And sometimes we try to bury our history underground. And I
think here of those underground pits very near this cathedral, where
slaves were once kept. So do we keep part of our own lives
underground like that; we cannot face our own failures?
And what about our nations? Do they bury the past where it cannot be
seen? This year my own country is trying to face some of its own
history as it commemorates the end of the slave trade. It is so easy
to pretend that those dark and unacceptable parts of our own history
did not exist but if God is to make us whole, we must bring what is
in darkness into light. God looks at us as individuals and as nations
and says to us ‘do not be afraid’. He says ‘it is possible to look at
your sin and your failure and yet to live.’ God says to us ‘You did
not deserve my love and yet it is yours.’ And in the light of that
miracle, we open our eyes and sometimes when we acknowledge the sin
and the weakness in ourselves, then our love and our compassion for
others grows.
In so much of our human life we do this exactly the wrong way round.
First of all we look at our neighbour and we say ‘I know what you
need.’ Then I look at myself and say ‘I am alright’ and then I look
at God and say ‘I am alright, aren’t I?’ and I don’t wait for an
answer. The Bible turns it upside down: as always the Gospel turns
the whole world upside down. First, God in Jesus Christ. Then myself,
the wretch who has been saved by amazing Grace, and then the world
around, the world that needs my love, my compassion, a world that
needs me to speak a word from God to it, a word of challenge; yes; a
word of judgement; yes, but above all, a word of promise.
And if we turn to the world in that spirit, perhaps it does not
matter at first if we give little or much. We give what we can.
Remember Peter and John seeing the lame man in the temple in the Acts
of the Apostles. ‘I don’t have silver and gold’, says St Peter, ‘but
I give you what I have. And I speak to you in the name of Jesus
Christ. And I tell you – get up – be healed, walk!’ Perhaps you know
Peter and John had walked past that end of the temple many times in
their lives, and perhaps they had never seen this man who had sat there.
But Peter and John are changed men – their eyes have been opened.
They have seen the cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ and,
remember, they ran to the tomb and they looked in and they found it
empty. Their eyes were opened, and so when they went to the temple,
this man who perhaps they’d never listened to and perhaps they’d
never attended to before suddenly they saw him and they heard him.
Then they spoke to him in the name of that everlasting love which is
Jesus. And he was set free and he rose and he walked. So dear
brothers and sisters we pray today and every day that the love of
Jesus continues to open our eyes, In our Anglican church worldwide we
pray that god will keep our eyes open to him and open to one another
in love. We pray that we may speak words of hope and freedom to one
another in Jesus.
Bishops say many words to one another – just as they say many, many
words to you. Very early in the history of the Church there was a
great saint who said that God was especially evident when Bishops are
silent. But that is perhaps only to say that there is one thing to
say to another bishop, that a bishop should say to God’s people and
God’s people should say back to a bishop; I remember two things; that
I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great saviour’.
As we resolve to pray that God keeps our eyes open, as we resolve to
pray to remember those things, let us ask God to make us a sign of
hope in the world, let us ask God to help us see in ourselves and on
the world what we would prefer not to see; let us ask God to make us
free so that we may make others free and above all let us give thanks
today and tomorrow and every day for the love we cannot describe or
explain. Let us give thanks for Amazing Grace, and let us remember
that we shall never come to the end of what can be said about the
love of God:
‘When we’ve been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’d first begun.’
And when the bread and the wine are raised above the altar, as they
are broken and shared, see there the rainbow of God’s promise.
Through all the storms, that light continues to shine, because God
never forgets who he is, god is faithful to his promises; let us not
forget who he is. Let us not forget what he gives us, let us not
forget what he calls us to do, what he calls us to share in his
world: ‘… two things: I am a great sinner and Jesus is a great saviour.’
To his name be glory and praise for ever. Amen.
© Rowan Williams 2007
If you would like these meditations to come directly to your in box, please click here:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KnitternunMeditation/
Collect
O God, who before the passion of your onlybegotten Son revealed his glory upon the holy mountain: Grant to us that we, beholding by faith the light of his countenance, may be strengthened to bear our cross, and be changed into his likeness from glory to glory; 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 25 * 9, 15; Deut 6:10-15; Hebrews 1:1-14; John 1:1-18
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From Forward Day by Day: http://www.forwardmovement.org/todaysreading.cfm
John 1:1-18. And from his fullness have we all received, grace upon grace.
My grandmother took me aside when I was little to give me advice. "You're not supposed to talk about the things you do well or the things you have," she said. "That's bragging. It's not nice."
Bragging? I had never heard the word. It didn't sound nice. Whatever a braggart was, I didn't want to be one. I embarked on the course most young women do: deprecate our own achievements, our own gifts. When it came time for interviews with those who would decide whether or not I could go to seminary, I had a hard time. "And what are your strengths?" one of the interviewers asked with interest.
"Um," I said, uncertain how to proceed. "Well, I've always done well in school." I was very young. They were gentle with me, those good people. Together we found a way to discuss the things I already had that might make a priest and what I needed, and soon I was on my way. The bishop asked me for my thoughts and I mumbled about feeling unworthy. He shushed me--none of us is worthy, he said, God makes us worthy, and we talked of other things.
Never claim gifts you don't have: people can tell. But always accept and quietly own the ones you do have, remembering where they all come from. That's not bragging.
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Today we remember: http://satucket.com/lectionary/Calendar.htm
Today is a feria, a free day.
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Today in the Anglican Cycle of Prayer we pray for the Diocese of Mbale (Uganda)
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 Love
Abba Agathon said, "If I could meet a leper, give him my body and take his, I should be very happy." That is perfect charity. It was also said of him that when he came into the town one day to sell his goods, he met a sick traveller lying in the public place with no one to care for him. The old man rented a room and lived with him there, working with his hands to pay the rent and spending the rest on the sick man's needs. He stayed there four months until the sick man was well again. Then he went back to his cell in peace.
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Daily Meditation (Henri Nouwen) http://www.henrinouwen.org/home/free_eletters/
The Basis of Our Security
What is the basis of our security? When we start thinking about that question, we may give many answers: success, money, friends, property, popularity, family, connections, insurance, and so on. We may not always think that any of these forms the basis of our security, but our actions or feelings may tell us otherwise. When we start losing our money, our friends, or our popularity, our anxiety often reveals how deeply our sense of security is rooted in these things.
A spiritual life is a life in which our security is based not in any created things, good as they may be, but in God, who is everlasting love. We probably will never be completely free from our attachment to the temporal world, but if we want to live in that world in a truly free way, we'd better not belong to it. "You cannot be the slave both of God and of money" (Luke 16:13).
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From the Principles of the Third Society of St. Francis:
Day Nineteen - The Third Way of Service: Work
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.
God, 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 to set
our minds only on Christ Jesus and him crucified; to whom with you and the
Holy Spirit be all glory for ever. Amen.
Almighty, eternal, just and merciful God,
grant us in our misery [the grace]
to do for You alone
what we know You want us to do,
and always
to desire what pleases You.
Thus,
inwardly cleansed,
interiorly enlightened,
and inflamed by the fire of the Holy spirit,
may we be able to follow
in the footprints of Your beloved Son,
our Lord Jesus Christ.
And,
by Your grace alone
may we make our way to You,
Most High
Who live and rule
in perfect Trinity and simple Unity,
and are glorified
God all-powerful
forever and ever.
Amen.
From: http://www.osfsisterswpeoria.org/prayers/letter.htm
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Upper Room Daily Reflection http://www.upperroom.org/reflections/
LENT SERVES as our annual invitation to come closer to God. It provides a time to look at our lives and ourselves, not so we may criticize ourselves more harshly but so we can identify the obstructions that keep us from God. What keeps us from feeling the presence of the divine in our every day? How do we hide from God, and why? Lent gives us a chance to look at such obstructions and to move them gently away so that we can come closer to the Love that gives us life, the Love whose triumph we will celebrate on Easter morning.
- Sarah Parsons
A Clearing Season
From page 8 of A Clearing Season by Sarah Parsons. Copyright © 2005 by Sarah Parsons.
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Richard Rohr's Daily Reflection
http://cacradicalgrace.org/getconnected/getconnected_index.html
"The Limits of Liberalism"
We've reached the limits of liberalism. Liberalism is basically a philosophy that proclaims the rights and the freedoms and the growth and the development of the individual. My rights, my career, my wholeness, my options. Vatican II really affirmed the agenda, protecting the person, the growth and freedom of the individual Christian. And we had to run with it for twenty-five years. We tasted its fruits, thank God, and I don't want to go back on any of those. But we've reached the limits of it. It finally moves to a place where all that we have are individuals seeking their own growth, their own happiness, their own development. Most cultures since the beginning of time would not share this worldview. There's little possibility there for the common good, for opening myself to what's good for the whole parish, the whole diocese, the whole people. The common good is what's good for the world, not just what's good for America or good for Christianity. One wonders if our people have forgotten how to think that way. It was once the centerpiece of Catholic vision and morality.
from Letting Go: A Spirituality of Subtraction
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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 teachings of God
To preserve men and women from sin and from being unworthy of himself God commanded them to love him and taught them to be just in their dealings with other people. By the Ten Commandments he prepared them to live in friendship with himself and in harmony with one another. This was simply for their own good and it was all God asked of them. It conferred great glory on them and gave them the friendship with God they had lacked, but it did not benefit God, for he had no need of their love. The need was all on their side: they needed the glory of God and could obtain it only by serving him. This is why Moses said to the people: Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him. In this your life consists.
And so God has abolished the laws which were given as a sign of their servitude but has amplified the natural laws which are of universal application and befit people who are free. This he has done in his generosity by freely making us his children, so that we might know him as our Father, love him with our whole heart, and unswervingly follow his Word.
Irenaeus of Lyons, (140 - 200), bishop of Lyons, wrote a momumental work Against the Heresies. At the heart of his theology is a vision of the unity and the the recapitulation of all things in Christ.
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Today's reading from the Rule of St. Benedict http://www.osb.org/rb/
Chapter 16: How the Work of God Is to Be Performed During the Day
"Seven times in the day," says the Prophet,
"I have rendered praise to You" (Ps. 118:164).
Now that sacred number of seven will be fulfilled by us
if we perform the Offices of our service
at the time of the Morning Office,
of Prime, of Terce, of Sext, of None,
of Vespers and of Compline,
since it was of these day Hours that he said,
"Seven times in the day I have rendered praise to You."
For as to the Night Office the same Prophet says,
"In the middle of the night I arose to glorify You" (Ps. 118:62).
Let us therefore bring our tribute of praise to our Creator
"for the judgments of His justice" (Ps. 118:164)
at these times:
the Morning Office, Prime, Terce, Sext, None,
Vespers and Compline;
and in the night let us arise to glorify Him.
Commentary: http://www.eriebenedictines.org/Pages/INSPIRATION/insights.html
site still needs to be updated.
Commentary by Gloriamarie
We may wonder what relevance this section of the Rule may have for us today. Who among us has the time to pray 7 different times during the day? We don't, of course. Even in some modern day Benedictine monasteries they have modified this section of the Rule, which is OK because Benedict did allow for the needs of each monastery. For us, though, perhaps the lesson we can take from todays reading of the RB is simply this: we must pray. We must set aside a few moments in the day when our attention is totally on God's and we are completely His. Pray a Psalm, the Our Father or use this Daily Meditation. But reclaim from the demands of the world time for the Most High.
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The Merton Reflection for the Week of February 19, 2007
Lent is our “Holy Spring”
Even the darkest moments of the liturgy are filled with joy, and Ash Wednesday, the beginning of the Lenten fast, is a day of happiness, a Christian feast. It cannot be otherwise, as it forms part of the great Easter cycle.
The Paschal Mystery is above all the mystery of life in which the Church, by celebrating the death and resurrection of Christ, enters into the Kingdom of Life which He has established once for all by His definitive victory over sin and death. We must remember the original meaning of Lent, as the ver sacrum, the Church’s “holy spring” in which the catechumens were prepared for their baptism, and public penitents were made ready by penance for their restoration to the sacramental life in a communion with the rest of the Church. Lent is then not a season of punishment so much as one of healing.
Thomas Merton. Seasons of Celebration. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1950: 113
Thought to Remember:
Lent is a preparation to rejoice in God’s love. And this preparation consists in receiving the gift of God’s mercy—a gift which we receive insofar as we open our hearts to it, casting out what cannot remain in the same room with mercy.
Seasons of Celebration: 116
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From http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/sermons_speeches/070218.htm
Archbisop's sermon given at Zanzibar Cathedral
Sunday 18th February
'Amazing Grace'
Once again may I thank you for your welcome and may I give you the
assurance of the love and prayers of your brothers and sisters in the
Church of England.
This morning I am going to speak about the three readings from the
bible that we have heard and I’m going to discuss them backwards –
I’m going to begin with the Gospel. The Gospel tells us the story of
a blind man who came to see, and today it is very appropriate that we
think about how God makes us see the truth. In the special prayer for
this morning – in the collect – we remembered the transfiguration of
Jesus when his disciples saw his glory and in that great hymn we sang
at the beginning of the service, we sang ‘I once was lost but now am
found; was blind but now I see’. God, through Jesus Christ, opens our
eyes, he makes us see.
And what is it that we cannot see until God touches us? Today we
remember the abolition of the slave trade. And that reminds us that
for hundreds and hundreds of years – in fact for thousands of years –
people did not see the evil of slavery. Around them human beings were
suffering in terrible ways and yet somehow people did not see, even
Christians did not see. It is possible to look at another human being
and yet not see what their real need is and what their real suffering
is. And gradually, as time went on, Christians began to have their
eyes opened. Africans, Americans, Englishmen, all in the light of
their faith began to see that this suffering and this injustice could
not be tolerated. Sometimes people talk as if in the 18th century
there was an ‘Enlightenment’ across Europe and America; a dawning, a
new seeing. But the real enlightenment was in this new seeing of
human dignity, human suffering, human injustice.
And so one thing which might reflect upon today is what it is that we
now are blind to; who is it now whose suffering we cannot see, cannot
understand? In some societies it may be women or old people, it may
be children. It may be minorities of one kind or another. It may be
that in our wealthy countries – it is the case in our wealthy
countries – that we do not see the reality of suffering and injustice
in so much of the world. And we may not know for a long time just how
many things we have not seen. But at least we can begin to pray
‘Lord, open our eyes’.
It can take a long time; the writer of the hymn Amazing Grace, as
many of you know, was someone who had been a slave trader. And even
when he was converted to faith in Jesus Christ, for a while after
that he went on selling slaves. Slowly, the Gospel opened his eyes to
the sufferings of those alongside him. So, we pray ‘Lord open our
eyes’ and we pray ‘Lord, let it not take the whole of our lives for
our eyes to be opened.’
But what is it that opens our eyes? It is not statistics, it is not
ideas, it is love. And so I turn to the second reading today, from St
Paul. Here St Paul spells out what love means, and if you listen to
that reading carefully you will here St Paul saying ‘this is how I
have been loved.’ So often in his letters, St Paul says to us ‘I did
not deserve the love of god to come to me.’ And yet I know that I am
loved’. St Paul himself could have written Amazing Grace, because St
Paul celebrates love as the action of God towards us out of God’s own
fullness and God’s own freedom.
And what happens when I learn at last that I am loved? What happens
when I learn that I am loved without having earned the love and
without having paid for it? I learn then that I depend completely on
God; I learn that I do not need to strike out at other people to make
myself safe; I know that I am poor and needy like every other person.
Love makes me open my hand: the hand that I’ve tried to close on my
possessions, my safety, my righteousness and holiness has to be
opened by God. And when God opens my hand and my heart, then I can
turn to my neighbour, I can see my neighbour’s suffering, my eyes are
opened – ‘I was blind and now can see.’ I become a place where the
love of God is at home.
So it is love that opens our eyes, it is love that makes us see. To
go back to the Gospel for just a moment; when the blind man’s eyes
are opened, what is the first thing that he sees? The first thing
that he sees is the face of Jesus. And when he has sent he face of
Jesus, he can see everything else in a different way. And so when
love opens our eyes, what is it that we see? When love opens our eyes
we can see God’s love; we can see what we have never seen before –
the free love of God towards us in the face of Jesus Christ.
And because of that we can see ourselves in a new way; we see
ourselves as helpless, as poor and hungry in the presence of god’s
love. And yet we see ourselves as infinitely precious in god’s sight.
And then because of that we see others in a new way. Not our enemies,
not people who are threatening us, but gifts from god; and se we
begin to be able to set about the task of setting others free. The
chains, the shackles of our own fears fall away. ‘Twas Grace that
taught my heart to fear and Grace my fears relieved’, says the hymn.
First of all when I see God’s love, I may be frightened – I haven’t
deserved this - how do I receive it? And then it is the same Grace
that relieves and takes away those fears.
So. The love of God teaches us to see; it teaches us to see God in
the face of Jesus Christ. It teaches us to see ourselves in the light
of that love; it teaches us to see our neighbour as the object of
that same love and that is when the whole face of the earth is
transfigured and enlightened by the love of God. And that brings me
to the first reading that we had this morning; God has saved Noah and
his family from the flood and, as they go back to cover the face of
the earth afresh, a new light appears in the sky; God sets in heaven
the promise that his love will endure. The rainbow in the sky tells
us that God has promised not to destroy the earth, tells us that God
has promised to be faithful to his own nature.
And so we Christians who seek to make the love of God, let the love
of God be real in our lives; we look for signs that remind us; signs
of the covenant. We are here this morning to celebrate Holy Communion
and through the history of the church, Holy Communion has been seen
among many other things, as a sign of God’s promise. When the bread
and the wine are lifted up at this table this morning, it is as if
there is a rainbow in the sky. Here as the bread and the wine of
Christ’s body and blood are shared, here is the promise of God’s
faithfulness. Here the face of Jesus is turned towards us once again.
Jesus tells us to do this in memory of him. We are to remember who he
is and remember what his love is, and if we can speak like this it is
as if God, seeing the face of Jesus, remembers who he is. As the
Bible sometimes puts it, he remembers, he brings to mind his
promises. And so we learn yet again what is the love that has opened
our eyes, what is the love that has set us free.
The man who wrote Amazing Grace lived to be a very old man. For many
years he worked as a priest in London. His teaching, his sermons his
hymns, inspired many in the struggle against slavery. But in old age
he said to one of his friends these words: ‘I am a very old man and
my memory has gone. But I remember two things: that I am a great
sinner and that Jesus is a great saviour.’ Now when we come to Holy
Communion, brothers and sisters, that is what we are to remember.
We are great sinners, we live so often in blindness; we do not truly
see ourselves; we hide from those things in ourselves which we can’t
manage. And sometimes we try to bury our history underground. And I
think here of those underground pits very near this cathedral, where
slaves were once kept. So do we keep part of our own lives
underground like that; we cannot face our own failures?
And what about our nations? Do they bury the past where it cannot be
seen? This year my own country is trying to face some of its own
history as it commemorates the end of the slave trade. It is so easy
to pretend that those dark and unacceptable parts of our own history
did not exist but if God is to make us whole, we must bring what is
in darkness into light. God looks at us as individuals and as nations
and says to us ‘do not be afraid’. He says ‘it is possible to look at
your sin and your failure and yet to live.’ God says to us ‘You did
not deserve my love and yet it is yours.’ And in the light of that
miracle, we open our eyes and sometimes when we acknowledge the sin
and the weakness in ourselves, then our love and our compassion for
others grows.
In so much of our human life we do this exactly the wrong way round.
First of all we look at our neighbour and we say ‘I know what you
need.’ Then I look at myself and say ‘I am alright’ and then I look
at God and say ‘I am alright, aren’t I?’ and I don’t wait for an
answer. The Bible turns it upside down: as always the Gospel turns
the whole world upside down. First, God in Jesus Christ. Then myself,
the wretch who has been saved by amazing Grace, and then the world
around, the world that needs my love, my compassion, a world that
needs me to speak a word from God to it, a word of challenge; yes; a
word of judgement; yes, but above all, a word of promise.
And if we turn to the world in that spirit, perhaps it does not
matter at first if we give little or much. We give what we can.
Remember Peter and John seeing the lame man in the temple in the Acts
of the Apostles. ‘I don’t have silver and gold’, says St Peter, ‘but
I give you what I have. And I speak to you in the name of Jesus
Christ. And I tell you – get up – be healed, walk!’ Perhaps you know
Peter and John had walked past that end of the temple many times in
their lives, and perhaps they had never seen this man who had sat there.
But Peter and John are changed men – their eyes have been opened.
They have seen the cross and the resurrection of Jesus Christ and,
remember, they ran to the tomb and they looked in and they found it
empty. Their eyes were opened, and so when they went to the temple,
this man who perhaps they’d never listened to and perhaps they’d
never attended to before suddenly they saw him and they heard him.
Then they spoke to him in the name of that everlasting love which is
Jesus. And he was set free and he rose and he walked. So dear
brothers and sisters we pray today and every day that the love of
Jesus continues to open our eyes, In our Anglican church worldwide we
pray that god will keep our eyes open to him and open to one another
in love. We pray that we may speak words of hope and freedom to one
another in Jesus.
Bishops say many words to one another – just as they say many, many
words to you. Very early in the history of the Church there was a
great saint who said that God was especially evident when Bishops are
silent. But that is perhaps only to say that there is one thing to
say to another bishop, that a bishop should say to God’s people and
God’s people should say back to a bishop; I remember two things; that
I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great saviour’.
As we resolve to pray that God keeps our eyes open, as we resolve to
pray to remember those things, let us ask God to make us a sign of
hope in the world, let us ask God to help us see in ourselves and on
the world what we would prefer not to see; let us ask God to make us
free so that we may make others free and above all let us give thanks
today and tomorrow and every day for the love we cannot describe or
explain. Let us give thanks for Amazing Grace, and let us remember
that we shall never come to the end of what can be said about the
love of God:
‘When we’ve been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’d first begun.’
And when the bread and the wine are raised above the altar, as they
are broken and shared, see there the rainbow of God’s promise.
Through all the storms, that light continues to shine, because God
never forgets who he is, god is faithful to his promises; let us not
forget who he is. Let us not forget what he gives us, let us not
forget what he calls us to do, what he calls us to share in his
world: ‘… two things: I am a great sinner and Jesus is a great saviour.’
To his name be glory and praise for ever. Amen.
© Rowan Williams 2007
posted by Gloriamarie Amalfitano @ 9:40 AM
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