God of Rising, you bring new life to all the places death inhabits. Bless our own dying dreams with your breath of new life. Make our dry bones dance, inspire us to sing, revive our bodies so that we might become more vibrant, hopeful witnesses to the persistence of your love. We call on Christ’s wisdom to bless and sustain us in the practice of resurrection by which we honor our bodies and become agents of generous abundance. May all the nets we draw up from the water be overflowing with fish, may our wounds be still visible as a sign of healing grace, and may we encounter your presence when we sit at table with strangers. Let our lives be a celebration of all the ways your love thrives where once there was only doubt, like the first riot of daffodils in spring.
~Christine Valters Paintner, A Book of Everyday Blessings: 100 Prayers for Dancing Monks, Artists, and Pilgrims (Ave Maria Press)
“The rhythm of the breath connects us to the other ancient rhythm of the heartbeat. When we slow down enough to hear both, we are plunged into the body’s pulse and music. Listen to that song.”
–Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, The Wisdom of the Body: A Contemplative Journey to Wholeness for Women
What do you hear when you slow down enough to listen to the rhythms of your heart and breath?
To register for the self-study companion retreat to the book with extra resources and guidance click here. Use code BODY20 to get 20% off through April 30th. (Video content includes updated closed captions and transcripts.)
“[Mary, Mother of Sorrows] makes space within each of us to meet our own sorrow without turning away or denying it with false platitudes. . . . She holds our pain in the context of her great love, compassion, and care.”
–Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, Birthing the Holy: Wisdom from Mary to Nurture Creativity and Renewal
What invitation are you receiving from Mary, Mother of Sorrows?
To register for the self-study, companion retreat to the book with extra resources and guidance, click here.
Verse of the day
What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.
– Psalm 116:12-13
Voice of the day
Any time you have an opportunity to make a difference in this world and you don’t, then you are wasting your time on Earth.
– Roberto Clemente
Prayer of the day
Servant God, you give in abundance and in every circumstance. May our offerings to the world do the same.
Denise and I had the wonderful opportunity to come back to my home state of Minnesota to hear “The Boss” offer up an evening of positive energy and outstanding music on the opening night of the E Street Band’s “Land of Hope & Dreams tour.” I needed this concert last night more than I realised.
As an American, a Veteran, and a Pastor, I have struggled a lot with complex feelings and concerns about the trajectory of this nation that I love and served for 26 years in uniform. Feelings of anger, despair, depression, and anxiety have been, at times, difficult for me to handle. Thankfully, Denise my sweet partner in life, love, and ministry has walked with me through these challenges and continues to be one of my guiding lights.
I needed a revival of the soul and Bruce Springsteen did just that for me and for Denise. The feeling of community and commitment amongst the approximately 18,000 concert goers was palpable. The energy was carried out into the streets of Minneapolis as we left the venue and walked back to our hotel. Even this morning the energy and excitement was present in the breakfast area and elevator as we chatted with others who had attended the concert.
In his opening comments last night, Springsteen said “We are here in celebration and defense of our American ideals…” He then asked us to join in choosing hope over fear, democracy over authoritarianism, the rule of law over lawlessness, ethics over unbridled corruption, resistance over complacency, unity over and peace over war! At that point, the band blasted right into the epic song “War!”
At the end of the concert, Springsteen reminded us that this country was founded by people who disagreed with each other but that didn’t stop the founders from working together in building this nation forged in the crucible of a Revolution which gave birth to our country and the Constitution which is the foundation of who we are as Americans.
Before beginning “Chimes of Freedom,” he told the audience This is a tour that was not planned. We’re here tonight because we need to steal your hope and your strength. And we wanted to bring some hope and some strength to you. I hope we did.
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band delivered on that promise and he encouraged us to go home and, in the words of the late Congressman John Lewis, get in good trouble, necessary trouble, and help redeem the soul of America.
Thanks for the encouragement Boss, we will return home with our spirits revived and with a renewed fire in our hearts. And with you We’ll take our stand for this land/And the stranger in our midst/We’ll take our stand for this land/And the stranger in our midst/We’ll remember the names of those who died/On the streets of Minneapolis.
“The invitation is to be Church. Not just passive pew dwellers, but an active embodiment of God’s love.”
–John Valters Paintner, PhD, Sacred Time: Embracing an Intentional Way of Life — A Self-Study Online Retreat. Use code SACREDTIME20 to take 20% off through March 31st, today.
How are you an active embodiment of God’s love?
To read the book this retreat accompanies, click here.
Verse of the day
For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?
– Mark 8:36
Voice of the day
History isn’t something you look back at and say it was inevitable, it happens because people make decisions that are sometimes very impulsive and of the moment, but those moments are cumulative realities.
– Marsha P. Johnson
Prayer of the day
Faithful and True Witness, help us make choices that will reverberate justly in the present and in retrospect.
Verse of the day
There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.
– Galatians 3:28
Voice of the day
Oppression involves a failure of the imagination: the failure to imagine the full humanity of other human beings.
– Margaret Atwood
Prayer of the day
God, help us keep each other’s resounding dignity at the forefront of our minds as we fight the yoke of oppression.
Persons are known not by the intellect alone, not by principles alone, but only by love. It is when we love the other, the enemy, that we obtain from God the key to an understanding of who he is, and who we are. It is only this realization that can open to us the real nature of our duty, and of right action.
To shut out the person and to refuse to consider him as a person, as an other self, we resort to the impersonal “law” and “nature.” That is to say we block off the reality of the other, we cut the intercommunication of our nature and his nature, and we consider only our own nature with its rights, its claims, its demands. In effect, however, we are considering our nature in the concrete and his nature in the abstract. And we justify the evil we do to our brother because he is no longer a brother, he is merely an adversary, an accused, an evil being. — Seeds of Destruction, pp. 254-255
Pastor Michael Moore's Blog 