Today we find ourselves on a journey with very dear friends
A journey of sabbath discovery and the prayerful presence of dear friends
Imbolc (Brigid’s feast day) welcomes us to embrace the beginning of new life in the midst of winter
I also find myself enjoying Brigid’s famous (or infamous) prayer which Fr Daniel Berrigan had written on the walls of his apartment. Thank you Paul Pynkoski and Jim Forest for this reminder
I should like a great lake of beer for the King of Kings.
I should like the angels of heaven to be drinking it through time eternal.
I should like excellent meats of belief and purity.
I should like flails of penance at my house.
I should like the men of heaven at my house;
I should like barrels of peace at their disposal;
I should like vessels of charity for distribution;
I should like for them cellars of mercy.
I should like cheerfulness to be in their drinking.
I should like Jesus to be there among them.
I should like the three Marys of illustrious renown to be with us.
I should like the people of heaven, the poor, to be gathered around us from all parts.
(Source- At Play in the Lions’ Den by Jim Forest )
And now, as the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
I lift this humble prayer to you
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
A wee prayer from the heart of your thankful Padre…
“And then there is the question of prayer, which consists for the most part in insisting that God do for us what we are unwilling to do for one another. Resolve: Let’s do for one another what we would have God do for all. This is known as God-like activity.”—Daniel Berrigan
Verse of the day
I will sing of loyalty and of justice; to you, O Lord, I will sing.
– Psalm 101:1
Voice of the day
Our world, so worn and weary, / Needs music, pure and strong, / To hush the jangle and discords / Of sorrow, pain, and wrong.
– Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, “Songs for the People”
Prayer of the day
Let us sing songs of justice and joy. Let our music be a balm of peace to those who have sorrowed.
“We should seek not so much to pray but to become prayer.”—St. Francis of Assisi
Be sure to taste the moment to the full. The Lord always reveals himself to you where you are most fully present. In your prayer, try to present your anxieties, struggles, and fears to him, and let him show you the way to follow him. More important than anything else is to follow the Lord. The rest is secondary. If you follow him, you can follow him as a priest, as a lay minister, as a single person, or as a married person; but what really counts is that he is the center.
As long as “being the Beloved” is little more than a beautiful thought or a lofty idea that hangs above my life to keep me from becoming depressed, nothing really changes. What is required is to become the Beloved in the commonplaces of my daily existence, and bit by bit to close the gap that exists between what I know myself to be and the countless realities of everyday life. Becoming the Beloved is pulling the truth revealed to me from above down into the ordinariness of what I am thinking of, talking about, and doing from hour to hour.
These words from Thomas Merton spoke to my heart tonight. In a world filled with noise and chaos, this is the silence and refreshment we seek.
To be alone by being part of the universe—fitting in completely to an environment of woods and silence and peace. Everything you do becomes a unity and a prayer. Unity within and without. Unity with all living things—without effort or contention. My silence is part of the whole world’s silence and builds the temple of God without the noise of hammers. — A Search for Solitude: Pursuing the Monk’s True Life, The Journals of Thomas Merton, Volume 3: 1952-1960 (December 29 and January 28, 1953)
The solitude and beauty of the night sky is breathtaking if you stop and simply look up and be present. May we enter that silence with open hearts. May we be open to hearing the Spirit’s gentle voice as She guides us along the path.
And now, that the sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
In the beauty of this moment
In the wonder of Your presence in our midst
Speak Your grace and peace into our lives
Hear me as I lift this humble prayer to you
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
A wee prayer from the heart of your Padre…
“Merton knew that the true mentor of the soul was nature itself. The fields, sun, mud, clay, wind, forests, sky, earth, and water are all companions for our own inner journeys.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, Earth, Our Original Monastery: Cultivating Wonder and Gratitude through Intimacy with Nature
What guidance and wisdom have you gleaned from the elements of water, wind, earth, and fire?
Verse of the day
O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.
– Psalm 104:24
Voice of the day
[I]f God is the creator of all human beings of all genders, then wouldn’t God be the most gender-full, gender-creative being in the cosmos?
– Chloe Specht, “Actually, ‘They’ Is a Beautiful Pronoun for God”
Prayer of the day
Creator, may we celebrate the possibilities of your design in each of us.
