“Love alters the unseen activity within your body and brain. More than any other positive emotion, then, love belongs not to one person, but to pairs or groups of people. It resides within connections. It extends beyond personal boundaries to even energize whole social networks or inspire a crowd to get up and dance.”—Barbara L. Fredrickson, PhD.
Jesus’ response to our worry-filled lives is quite different. He asks us to shift the point of gravity, to relocate the center of our attention, to change our priorities. Jesus wants us to move from the “many things” to the “one necessary thing.” It is important for us to realize that Jesus in no way wants us to leave our many-faceted world. Rather, he wants us to live in it, but firmly rooted in the center of all things. Jesus does not speak about a change of activities, a change of contacts, or even a change of pace. He speaks about a change of heart. This change of heart makes everything different, even while everything appears to remain the same. This is the meaning of “Set your hearts on his kingdom first . . . and all these other things will be given you as well.” What counts is where our hearts are. When we worry, we have our hearts in the wrong place. Jesus asks us to move our hearts to the center, where all other things fall into place.
“Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensable to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global community.'”
—Karen Armstrong
Today worrying means to be occupied and preoccupied with many things, while at the same time being bored, resentful, depressed, and very lonely. I am not trying to say that all of us are worried in such an extreme way all the time. Yet there is little doubt in my mind that the experience of being filled yet unfulfilled touches most of us to some degree at some time. In our highly technological and competitive world, it is hard to avoid completely the forces that fill up our inner and outer space and disconnect us from our innermost selves, our fellow human beings, and our God.
One of the most notable characteristics of worrying is that it fragments our lives. The many things to do, to think about, to plan for, the many people to remember to visit, or to talk with, the many causes to attack or defend, all these pull us apart and make us lose our center. Worrying causes us to be “all over the place,” but seldom at home. One way to express the spiritual crisis of our time is to say that most of us have an address but cannot be found there.
| Verse of the day I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. – John 10:11 |
| Voice of the day [I]n the contemplative journey, as we swim down into those deeper waters toward the wellsprings of hope, we begin to experience and trust what it means to lay down self, to let go of ordinary awareness and surrender ourselves to the mercy of God. – Cynthia Bourgeault, Mystical Hope (2001) |
| Prayer of the day Help me to follow your example of laying down the self. Lead me to the wellsprings of change. |
| Verse of the day Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. – Psalm 51:10 |
| Voice of the day It takes vulnerability and openheartedness to listen. These are good and holy qualities. – Rev. Jes Kast |
| Prayer of the day Remind me of the holiness of listening. Help me to approach with a spirit of vulnerability and openheartedness. |
God exists, and the meaning of all that I am depends totally on that knowledge. I wonder constantly if I am genuinely allowing my life to be determined by that truth. Maybe part of my reason for hesitating to embrace this truth fully is that it challenges me to give up all control over my life and to let God be God, my God, the God of my neighbor, and the God of all creation. But I also realize that as long as I do not “do” this, my life is an illusion and most of my energy is spoiled in trying to keep that illusion going.
Does all this mean that my thoughts, plans, projects, and ideas no longer matter? That conclusion has been drawn by people who used the spiritual life as a way to manipulate others, and that conclusion has led, sadly enough, to false views on asceticism, obedience, surrender to God’s will, and certain forms of self-denial. The converted person does not say that nothing matters anymore, but that everything that is happens in God and that he is the dwelling place where we come to know the true order of things. Instead of saying: “Nothing matters anymore, since I know that God exists,” the converted person says: “All is now clothed in divine light and, therefore, nothing can be unimportant.”
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
It has been a good day for contemplation
It has been a good day to reflect on the past
It has been a good day to simply enjoy the present moment
It has been a good day to look to the future
This Compline prayer from the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer came to my heart unbidden
Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ; give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous; and all for your love’s sake. Amen.
That is indeed my humble prayer
Now as my eyelids grow heavy
I lift this humble prayer to you
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
A wee prayer from your Padre…
“Everywhere one turns, in jail or out, with prisoners, with movement people, with militant clergy persons, dove politicians, well-meaning bureaucrats of all denominations and hues, the big question is, ‘What will it (action) cost me?’ Rarely is the question turned around to become, ‘What will it cost me if I don’t act?'”—Phillip Berrigan
“Do not be afraid, have no fear,” is the voice we most need to hear. This voice was heard by Zechariah when Gabriel, the angel of the Lord, appeared to him in the temple and told him that his wife, Elizabeth, would bear a son; this voice was heard by Mary when the same angel entered her house in Nazareth and announced that she would conceive, bear a child, and name him Jesus; this voice was also heard by the women who came to the tomb and saw that the stone was rolled away. “Do not be afraid, do not be afraid, do not be afraid.” The voice uttering these words sounds all through history as the voice of God’s messengers, be they angels or saints. It is the voice that announces a whole new way of being, a being in the house of love, the house of the Lord. . . . The house of love is not simply a place in the afterlife, a place in heaven beyond this world. Jesus offers us this house right in the midst of our anxious world.
