If we are patient, we can look at all the events of each day – expected and unexpected – as holding promise for us. Patience is the attitude that says we cannot force life but have to let it grow in its own time. Patience lets us see the people we meet, the events of the day, and the unfolding of history of our times as all part of the slow process of development and final liberation. — Discernment: Reading the Signs of Daily Life
Reflection Question: When have you experienced the most power times of returning to God?
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
– Galatians 5: 22
“We each have within us many threshold places where our love of the Divine meets our love of the world, where our hearts and minds unite, where the differing parts of ourselves come together to listen to our calling in the world.”
—Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, Earth, Our Original Monastery: Cultivating Wonder and Gratitude through Intimacy with Nature
Where are the places within you where your wild edges meet?
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“The reality of pain is a given. When we deny this pain, we become prone to guilt and to becoming trapped in the spiral of self-blame and paralysis. These psalms [of lamentation] offer us as individuals and as communities of faith a way to pray together, speaking truth about pain and naming the reality we live in.”
—Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, Earth, Our Original Monastery: Cultivating Wonder and Gratitude through Intimacy with Nature
What are the truths of pain you’ve denied or have been denied to you?
To register for the self-study companion retreat to the book with extra resources and guidance click here. Use code EARTH20 to take 20% off through September 30th.
Verse of the day
Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.
– Isaiah 41:10 (The Inclusive Bible)
Voice of the day
Hope is a song in a weary throat.
– Pauli Murray
Prayer of the day
God of healing, fix what is broken, renew what is weary, and bring peace where there is pain. May your grace make us whole and may our hope be restored. Amen.
The soul bathes in ashes and honey,
bows down at the altar of grief,
savors life’s sweetness.
—Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, What Enters Through the Open Heart: Poems
When can you take time to intentionally rest in your soul’s experience?
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Verse of the day
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. – Matthew 5:9
– Matthew 5:9
Voice of the day
If we are serious about peace, then we must work for it as ardently, seriously, continuously, carefully, and bravely as we have ever prepared for war.
– Wendell Berry
Prayer of the day
Creator God, guide us in our labor as we work for peace, that we may be called your children.
A sermon about the question God wishes we asked more often so that God can offer God’s first and fundamental promise: “Yes, I will be with you always…
A Resounding Yes (Updated)
“’What is it the season for?’ a wise spiritual director used to ask me, inviting me to tend to my inner seasons as well as the outer one unfolding around me. She knew that nature’s wisdom could offer me guidance and grace.”
—Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, Earth, Our Original Monastery: Cultivating Wonder and Gratitude through Intimacy with Nature
What is this season of your life, and what might it be telling you?
To register for the self-study companion retreat to the book with extra resources and guidance click here. Use code EARTH20 to take 20% off through September 30th.
Verse of the day
But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things and Lazarus in like manner evil things, but now he is comforted here, and you are in agony.’
– Luke 16:25
Voice of the day
The gift of free time is not a luxury. It is, theologically speaking, the precondition of humanity. It is where we learn to be imago Dei — the image of a God who rests, who delights, who dwells in community…The Sabbath has been stolen from us — not by God’s absence, but by an economic order that treats human beings as instruments of production.
– Omar Haramy, “The Fridge and the Drone”
Prayer of the day
Eternal Refuge, as Augustine said, our hearts are restless until they rest in you. Keep us attuned to one another as we overcome the impulse to measure ourselves by our productivity.
Verse of the day
How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!
– Psalm 133:1
Voice of the day
Unity in this sense is a threshold requirement for people to live in freedom and together in a free society. It is the solid rock, as Jesus said, in this case upon which to build a nation. It is not conformity. It is not victory. It is not polite weariness or passive passivity born of exhaustion.
– Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde
Prayer of the day
God who finds joy in our harmony, guide us toward the repentance and repair that must precede unity.
Pastor Michael Moore's Blog 