Verse of the day
An honest witness tells the truth, but a false witness tells lies.
– Proverbs 12:17 (NIV)
Voice of the day
[W]hen you study history, you must ask yourself, Whose story am I missing? Whose voice was suppressed so that this voice could come forth? Once you have figured that out, you must find that story too.
– Yaa Gyasi, Homegoing (2016)
Prayer of the day
May we condemn false witnesses and easy answers. May we tell honest histories.
“When we are able to fully release our need to control the outcome, thresholds become rich and graced places of transformation.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, The Soul’s Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Practices for Seeking the Sacred
Where do you need to release your need to control the outcome?
A self-study online companion retreat to this book is available>>
A friend of ours said today in an email “May the Schedule Demon not find you for the entire trip.” Denise and I have felt a lightness of spirit and absolutely no fear as we began this journey of refreshment and renewal.
For decades I have been scheduled and over scheduled in my own life. In the military my schedule was, pardon the pun, quite regimented. Meetings, planning and preparation for contingency operations, and other functions was a part of the daily routine. Worship and program planning were also a big part of that phase of my life. Of course the schedule would go “out the window” if I was called to respond to plane crashes, suicides, domestic disturbance calls, and calls to go to the jail or hospitals for emergency ministry.
In the church, people would often ask how I scheduled my days. At that point, I would chuckle and tell them this joke which was more truth than joke. Want to make God laugh? Tell Her your plans! Flexibility was and is crucial to daily ministry whilst still keeping that schedule going.
Now, the schedule is this: live in the present moment. Reflect and act instead of the typical instantaneous reflex reaction to whatever is before me. When I read the following portion of Thomas Merton’s journal entry on February 24, 1966 it hit close to home.
I need perhaps to be less preoccupied with them (his own spiritual preoccupations) to show that one can be free of them, and go one’s own way in peace. But there is inculcated in us such a fear of being out of everything, out of touch, left behind. This fear is a form of tyranny, a law—and one is faced with a choice between this law and true grace, hidden, paradoxical, but free. February 24, 1966, Learning to Love: The Journals of Thomas Merton (vol six, 1966-1967)
The lyrics from the song, “Day by Day“ from the musical Godspell came to my mind and perhaps this is where we find the hidden, paradoxical, but free grace Merton desired.
Day by day
Day by day
Oh Dear Lord
Three things I pray
To see thee more clearly
Love thee more dearly
Follow thee more nearly
Day by day Day by Day
Dear reader, may you find the opportunity to break free of scheduling constraints, if even for a few minutes, to be present and listen to the unforced rhythms of grace. (Matthew 11:28, The Message translation Bible Gateway)
“Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can’t be kind, true, merciful, generous or honest.”—Maya Angelou
Verse of the day
God looked at all of this creation, and proclaimed that this was good—very good.
– Genesis 1:31 (The Inclusive Bible)
Voice of the day
I am an expression of the divine, just like a peach is, just like a fish is. I have a right to be this way.
– Alice Walker, The World Has Changed (2010)
Prayer of the day
Let us celebrate the divinity that you designed in each of us. May we marvel at our ways.
The sun set while we were driving
The Vesper lights long ago flickered and glowed
After 14 hours on the road we made it to Minnesnowda
A drive filled with music, reading (Denise, not the driver!), and conversation
A short prayer tonight as my eyelids grow heavy
I lift this humble prayer to you
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
A wee prayer from your very sleepy Padre…
Verse of the day
Neither is new wine put into old wineskins; otherwise, the skins burst, and the wine is spilled, and the skins are destroyed; but new wine is put into fresh wineskins, and so both are preserved.
– Matthew 9:17
Voice of the day
Sometimes tradition and habit are just that, comfortable excuses to leave things be, even when they are unjust and unworthy.
– Matthew Scully, Dominion (2002)
Prayer of the day
May I be dissatisfied with the patterns that have been. May I challenge the traditions and habits that excuse injustice.
Brigid’s feast day (and the festival of Imbolc) were last week. They began on January 31st which is the evening prior to the celebration on February 1st. Both celebrate the beginning of new life following the winter season of darkness. The days are getting longer and new life begins to spring forth. The snowdrop flower (pictured below) is one of the signs of spring and is closely associated with Brigid.
Christine Valters Paintner shared this story of Brigid in one of the lessons from a year-long course I am taking through the Abbey of the Arts. Abbey of the Arts
“On the way back to Kildare, Brigid and the Bishop stayed for a night in the house of the king of Teffia. It happened that a servant broke a most precious cup that belonged to the king, for which he was thrown into prison. When Brigid heard of this she asked that he be set free, but the king refused her. ‘Then give me the shards of the cup,’ requested Brigid. ‘Those you may have,’ said the king. When Brigid took them in her hands and breathed upon them they were restored as if they had never been broken. ‘Thus is the life of the soul,’ Brigid said. ‘Though it may be easily broken yet it may be restored.’ At this the king sent word to release his servant.” – Story found in Drinking from the Sacred Well by John Matthews
As I pondered this story this is what came to my heart:
Thus the life of the soul… Though it may be easily broken yet it may be restored.
We woke up on this first morning of our intentional time of Sabbath rest feeling a lightness of heart. No agendas, no appointments or places to be, no bulletin preparation or church meetings… just a simple agenda to be with each other and breathe in peace and breathe out love.
We knew that we were exhausted but the full effect didn’t hit until after I turned in my keys to the church. It hit after the last goodbye after church. It hit once we started driving to Florence, Alabama where we would spend two nights before heading to Minnesota. It hit while we played Farkle and enjoyed a glass of wine and hummus and veggies at the hotel.
Yes, dear Brigid, Thus is the life of our soul. Though it may easily be broken, yet it may be restored.
After a very meaning-filled worship service this morning on our last day at the church
Baptizing and welcoming a precious family to membership
Celebrating the Lord’s Supper after the Baptism
Some poignant farewells
We find ourselves now beginning anew
A new direction
Steps taken in faith
Perhaps we can take the opportunity to explore as Thomas Merton suggests:
When your tongue is silent, you can rest in the silence of the forest. When your imagination is silent, the forest speaks to you. It tells you of its unreality and of the Reality of God. But when your mind is silent, then the forest suddenly becomes magnificently real and blazes transparently with the Reality of God. — Sign of Jonas, p. 343
Guide us Spirit as we take these steps in faith with the assurance that you are with us always
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
“I have often been inspired by Dr. King’s quote: ‘One with God is a majority.’ He said once in a church basement, ‘We have the power in this room, if we mobilize it, to change the future course of America.’ Only thirty-five people were in that room, and perhaps at the time they thought he was delusional. But he acted on that belief and together they woke up the whole nation and helped create fundamental change in our society.”—David Hartsough, Waging Peace
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