“Our invitation is to remember who we are and why we are here. We do this, in part, by reconnecting to more ancient rhythms, not of the manic, rushing clock kind, but the ancient rhythms of earth and body.”
—Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, Sacred Time: Embracing an Intentional Way of Life
Can you open yourself to experiencing each day as a pilgrimage through time, an opportunity to be present and mindful in the moment?
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Verse of the day
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, and in their eagerness to be rich some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pains.
– 1 Timothy 6:10
Voice of the day
We forget the land we stand on / and live from. We set ourselves / free in an economy founded / on nothing, on greed verified / by fantasy, on which we entirely / depend. We depend on fire / that consumes the world without / lighting it.
– Wendell Berry, “2008, XII”
Prayer of the day
Merciful God, bring us out of the forgetfulness that systems of dominion rely on and into mindfulness before it is too late.
“Sacred balance is restored through practices that promote an interior and exterior orientation toward God — the Ground of Being from which health and wellness spring.”
—Melinda Emily Thomas, Sacred Balance: Aligning Body and Spirit Through Yoga and the Benedictine Way
What are the practices that restore your interior and exterior orientations towards God?
Sign up for a self-study bundle of Contemplative Yoga with Melinda. Use code YOGA20 to take 20% off through August 31st.
Verse of the day
My child, give me your heart, and let your eyes observe my ways.
– Proverbs 23:26
Voice of the day
If I’m alive, I see. I’m a person with a conciencia – with a consciousness making sure there is justice and peace.
– Graciela Sanchez
Prayer of the day
Awakened God, we face you each day but sometimes with limited way of seeing. Fill our perceptions with who and what is beloved in your eyes, so that we never stray too far.
THE mere ability to choose between good and evil is the lowest limit of freedom, and the only thing that is free about it is the fact that we can still choose good… Freedom therefore does not consist in an equal balance between good and evil choices but in the perfect love and acceptance of what is really good and the perfect hatred and rejection of what is evil, so that everything you do is good and makes you happy, and you refuse and deny and ignore every possibility that might lead to unhappiness and self-deception and grief. Only the man who has rejected all evil so completely that he is unable to desire it at all, is truly free. — New Seeds of Contemplation, pp. 199-200
Published in 1961, these words of Thomas Merton are especially relevant today as we remember both the dropping of the first and second atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki AND as we look at the world today. In addition to the Russians and the Chinese (who are involved today in the latest immoral “war” in the Middle East) I would add Israel and Iran. Literally, God help us to change the course of this nation and world before it is too late!
When I pray for peace I pray God to pacify not only the Russians and the Chinese but above all my own nation and myself. When I pray for peace I pray to be protected not only from the Reds but also from the folly and blindness of my own country. When I pray for peace, I pray not only that the enemies of my country may cease to want war, but above all that my own country will cease to do the things that make war inevitable. In other words, when I pray for peace I am not just praying that the Russians will give up without a struggle and let us have our own way. I am praying that both we and the Russians may somehow be restored to sanity and learn how to work out our problems, as best we can, together, instead of preparing for global suicide. — New Seeds of Contemplation, p. 121
Enemies are enemies by the way we exclude them from the love of God. When we love with God’s love we can no longer divide people into those who deserve God’s love and those who don’t. When we come to know God’s first love nobody can be excluded from that love. — Following Jesus: Finding Our Way Home in an Age of Anxiety
Reflection Question: Who are you most tempted to exclude from the love of God – and how will you remember that they, too, are loved by God?
Settle matters quickly with your adversary who is taking you to court. Do it while you are still together on the way… – Matthew 5: 25
Yesterday I was sitting in the woodshed reading and a little Carolina wren suddenly hopped on to my shoulder and then on to the corner of the book I was reading and paused a second to take a look at me before flying away. (Same wren just came back and is singing and investigating busily in the blocks of the wall over there.) Here is what I think. Man can know all about God’s creation by examining its phenomena, by dissecting and experimenting and this is all good. But it is misleading, because with this kind of knowledge you do not really know the beings you know. You only know about them. That is to say you create for yourself a knowledge based on your observations. What you observe is really as much the product of your knowledge as its cause. You take the thing not as it is, but as you want to investigate it. Your investigation is valid, but artificial. There is something you cannot know about a wren by cutting it up in a laboratory and which you can only know if it remains fully and completely a wren, itself, and hops on your shoulder if it feels like it. — Where the Trees Say Nothing: Writings on Nature, pp.29-30 (Kindle Edition)
Verse of the day
All these things my hand has made, so all these things are mine, says the Lord. But this is the one to whom I will look, to the humble and contrite in spirit who trembles at my word.
– Isaiah 66:2
Voice of the day
Yet the deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised.
– Aragorn from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Return of the King (1955)
Prayer of the day
God who sees what often goes unseen, remind us that there is always worth in what we do, and help us proclaim not our own glories, but those of others and of yourself.
Verse of the day
According to the grace of God given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building on it. Let each builder choose with care how to build on it.
– 1 Corinthians 3:10
Voice of the day
Creativity belongs to the artist in each of us. To create means to relate. The root meaning of the word art is to fit together and we all do this every day. Not all of us are painters but we are all artists. Each time we fit things together we are creating, whether it is to make a loaf of bread or a life.
– Corita Kent
Prayer of the day
God who stretches our senses, inspire innovation and creativity in us from even the smallest, most innocuous things around us.
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