The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
A wonderful Lord’s day of fellowship and worship
A day of work and study
A wonderful evening meal
A time to snuggle and relax with my sweetheart
Now as my eyelids grow heavy
I lift this humble prayer to you
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
A wee prayer from the heart of your Padre…
Peace and Love… that was a portion of my message tonight at our Sunday Evening Worship service. Peace and Love… isn’t that what is missing from so much of the dialogue in this country and world? For the past several years at Presbyterian Community Church of the Rockies we have offered midweek worship in our outdoor chapel during the Season of Peace in September.
As we contemplate our transition from Estes Park, CO and Presbyterian Community Church of the Rockies to Carrollton Presbyterian Church in Carrollton, GA; we are considering the importance of both the season of peace and love. In these divisive times we Christ-followers are called to be, in the words of St Francis of Assisi, Instruments of God’s peace.
My prayer for our communities, our nation, and our world is that Love can transform not only our lives but this nation and world. Thomas Merton had these words to share from his book, Love and Living:
Love affects more than our thinking and our behavior toward those we love. It transforms our entire life. Genuine love is a personal revolution. Love takes your ideas, your desires, and your actions and welds them together in one experience and one living reality which is a new you. (p. 27)
May it be so!
“Earth has multiple terrains, as does the soul. Becoming familiar with the outer landscape reveals dimensions to us of our inner ones as well.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD, Earth, Our Original Monastery: Cultivating Wonder and Gratitude through Intimacy with Nature
Do you recognize which territories enliven your soul and which ones challenge you, bringing you closer to discovering who you most deeply are and what you long for?
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
It has been a long and full day, Lord
Cleaning, packing, preparing our home
There was some time for reflection
Mostly it was incredibly busy
Help us to take the time, Lord
Time to slow down and Be Still
The night is late and my eyelids grow heavy
So I lift this humble prayer to you
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
A wee prayer from the heart of your Padre…
A powerful blog from Jake Owensby!
Love is powerful. And complicated. And messy. And I’m going to keep walking the way of love, because I believe that, eventually, love wins.
Love risks telling hard truths.
When Love Gets Messy
In these days of increasing “noise” via Social Media and 24-Hour News, it can be difficult to “Be Still” in God’s presence. For others the silence can be difficult for a variety of reasons. If you live alone in quarantine, the silence can be overwhelming when you are literally cut off from physical/social interaction. It is a delicate balance that is as unique as every individual. The challenge still is to find ways to “Be Still” in our daily living.
One thing I have discovered as a pastor is that Zoom fatigue is a real thing. The day can quickly be filled with meetings, studies, worship, and social get togethers. Yet in this time I understand even more how important silence is to my own faith journey. These sentences from Thomas Merton’s book Love and Loving speak to me and will continue to do so as this journey continues.
Faith demands the integrity of inner trust which produces wholeness, unity, peace, genuine security. Here we see the creative power and fruitfulness of silence. Not only does silence give us a chance to understand ourselves better, to get a truer and more balanced perspective on our own lives in relation to the lives of others: silence makes us whole if we let it. (Love and Living, p. 42)
One of the things that I have learned throughout this season of the pandemic is how important habits are. In the beginning, Denise and I were working at least 90 hours seven days a week. Work was our structure. One of the gifts we were given came in the form of our Zoom Midday Prayer offerings Monday through Thursday. Prior to the Pandemic we would begin our day with Morning Prayer before I headed to the church.
As this journey has continued I have come to realize the necessity of a sacred rhythm in prayer and work. One of the central principles of the Benedictine rule for life is Ora et Labora (Prayer and Work). Thomas Merton talked about this balance in his book The Sign of Jonas. These journals cover six years of his early monastic journey. As Denise and I begin the process of moving from our current call in Estes Park, Colorado to Carrollton, Georgia this rhythm of life is going to be essential for both of us. Merton’s words speak to the importance of such a rhythm.
This is the real purpose of the monastic life: a more or less habitual state of simple prayer and union with God which varies in intensity at different times of the day, which find a particular and proper rhythm in the life of each individual, and which brings the soul of the monk at all times under the direct and intimate influence of God’s action. (The Sign of Jonas, p.4)
My prayer is that this rhythm can guide us through the coming weeks and months.
“The more we cultivate our own intimacy with the wild, the more we open to different truth. Wildness doesn’t mean we have to go out into the forest or travel long ways, the wild is a place within us.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD The Wisdom of Wild Grace: Poems
How do you connect to your inner wildness?
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
It has been a long but productive day
Reflecting on a personally very busy and emotional weekend
Reflecting on this nation and world
Praying for Peace
Praying for stamina
Praying for wisdom
In my reading this evening these words of Thomas Merton stood out to me
Mercifully hear this prayer which rises to You from the tumult and desperation of a world in which You are forgotten, in which Your name is not invoked, Your laws are derided, Your presence is ignored… Help us to be masters of the weapons that threaten to master us. Help us to use our science for peace and plenty, not for war and destruction… Grant light, Grant strength and patience to all who work for peace. **
Now as my eyelids grow heavy
I lift this humble prayer to you
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
A wee prayer from the heart of your Padre…
** Merton—A Prayer for Peace—excerpt from a prayer read in the House of Representatives on April 12, 1962 (Wednesday in Holy Week)
The Non-Violent Alternative, pp. 268-269)
