Verse of the day
So then, a Sabbath rest still remains for the people of God, for those who enter God’s rest also rest from their labors as God did from his. Let us therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall through such disobedience as theirs.
– Hebrews 4:9-11
Voice of the day
O good shepherd, would you teach me how to rest / I’m rushing on, will you make me to lie down
– The Porter’s Gate, “Slow Me Down”
Prayer of the day
Lord, we remember those who work and for whom rest seems unattainable. Teach us how to lie down and be restored.
In recent decades we have become particularly aware of the crucial importance of our relationship with nature. As long as we relate to the trees, the rivers, the mountains, the fields, and the oceans as properties to be manipulated by us according to our real or fabricated needs, nature remains opaque and does not reveal to us its true being. When we relate to a tree as nothing more than a potential chair, it cannot speak much to us about growth. When a river is only a dumping place for our industrial wastes, it no longer informs us about movement. And when we relate to a flower as nothing more than a model for a plastic decoration, the flower loses its power to reveal to us the simple beauty of life. When we relate to nature primarily as property to be used, it becomes opaque, and this opaqueness is manifested in our society as pollution. The dirty rivers, the smog-filled skies, the strip-mined hills, and the ravaged woods are sad signs of our false relationship with nature.
Our difficult and very urgent task is to accept the truth that nature is not primarily a property to be possessed, but a gift to be received with admiration and gratitude. Only when we make a deep bow to the rivers, oceans, hills, and mountains that offer us a home, only then can they become transparent and reveal to us their real meaning.
Verse of the day
Stand, therefore, and belt your waist with truth and put on the breastplate of righteousness.
– Ephesians 6:14
Voice of the day
As many of us pause to gather on the Fourth of July, I wonder if perhaps we can celebrate without embracing myths or ignoring unpleasant truths. And as we carry on with life after the fireworks are over, will we be willing to do the soul work of facing who we are? Who are we? Who do we want to be? Can we stop and listen to the child, and love, and walk into the dark, toward becoming something unfathomably new?
– Jean Nealy, “Grieving America on the Fourth of July”
Prayer of the day
Lord, although this day is meant to celebrate “freedom,” we recognize that it’s a lie because not all who live in the U.S. are free. May this day be one of sober remembrance. Help us to fight for the freedom of all people.
Gratitude…goes beyond the “mine” and “thine” and claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift. In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response to the awareness of gifts received, but now I realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline. The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy.
Gratitude as a discipline involves a conscious choice. I can choose to be grateful even when my emotions and feelings are still steeped in hurt and resentment. It is amazing how many occasions present themselves in which I can choose gratitude instead of a complaint. . . . The choice for gratitude rarely comes without some real effort. But each time I make it, the next choice is a little easier, a little freer, a little less self-conscious. . . . There is an Estonian proverb that says: “Who does not thank for little will not thank for much.” Acts of gratitude make one grateful because, step by step, they reveal that all is grace.
“And whom do I call my enemy?
An enemy must be worthy of engagement.
I turn in the direction of the sun and keep walking.
It’s the heart that asks the question, not my furious mind.
The heart is the smaller cousin of the sun.
It sees and knows everything.
It hears the gnashing even as it hears the blessing.
The door to the mind should only open from the earth.
An enemy who gets in risks the danger of becoming a friend.”
—Joy Harjo, Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings
They are community centers. Apartment buildings and restaurants. Abandoned, decaying shells. Former worshippers used to call them church. The authors of Beyond Doubt: The Secularization of Society tell us that up to 10,000 churches close each year in the United States.[1] As a bishop I’ve participated in the sad process of closing some of them.
— Read on jakeowensby.com/2023/06/30/its-about-connection/
Last week Denise and I attended the biennial meeting of the International Thomas Merton Society in South Bend, Indiana. As is the case in nearly every conference we attend, we came away with more books despite our best efforts to pack in such a way that we wouldn’t have room for more books. Hey, one more book can fit in the backpack that can still fit in the overhead luggage bin. Even though the bins are getting smaller as are the seats and the spaces under the seats! Well, it sort of fit… honest it did 🤔🙄🤣
A new friend that we met at the meeting last week posted the following on his Facebook page: The Three Stages of Clergy Life—Wanting books. Accumulating books.
Getting rid of books. I graduated from seminary in 1987 and the moving weight/cost allowance was very limited. I was in the Air Force from 1990-2011 where all of my books were considered professional gear (pro-gear) and didn’t count against my weight allowance for moving. Post Air Force I have moved five times. Oh and when you merge libraries like Denise and I did when we got married, we got rid of duplicates and a multitude of other books along the way. Yes, we do love our books!
So imagine my surprise when I read the following from Thomas Merton in the book, The Asian Journal of Thomas Merton. As he talked about traveling to Asia, Merton was aware of the limits of baggage back in the 1960’s, others like myself had to pay for excess baggage. Lesson: not to travel with so many books. I bought more yesterday, unable to resist the bookstores of San Francisco. (October 15–p. 4)
I wonder what Thomas Merton would have thought about e-books? Hey, more books without taking up suitcase space! Although I image that he would be like Denise and me… there’s nothing like the feel of an actual book in your hands.
“Action on behalf of life transforms. Because the relationship between self and the world is reciprocal, it is not a question of first getting enlightened or saved and then acting. As we work to heal the earth, the earth heals us.”—Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants
“Most Merciful and Compassionate God,
Give us Thy great Goodness;
Teach us Thy loving Forgiveness;
Raise us above the distinctions and
differences which divide us;
Send us the Peace of Thy Divine Spirit,
And unite us all in Thy Perfect Being.”—Hazrat Inayat Khan
Verse of the day
O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.
– Psalm 131:1
Voice of the day
It is a curious thing … but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. Those who, like you, have leadership thrust upon them, and take up the mantle because they must, and find to their own surprise that they wear it well.
– Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (2007)
Prayer of the day
Lord, remind us when our reach exceeds our grasp that the first shall be last. May we follow the examples you’ve set for how we ought to relate to power.
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