Truly a wonderful reminder…
“If you want to conquer the anxiety of life, live in the moment, live in the breath.” – Amit Ray
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
Another long day of meetings
Thank you, Lord, for life-giving meetings
Thank you, Lord, for wonderful co-workers
Thank you, Lord, for guiding our feet along the pathway
Guide us, I pray, along your ancient pathway
Guide us, Lord, into the way of Peace
As things wind down for the evening
I lift this humble prayer to you
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
A wee prayer from the heart of your Padre…
Powerful challenge to each of us… sure got my attention, Malcolm!
For different reasons we have all, on both sides of the Atlantic, been reflecting on the way our words can travel and unravel beyond us, on the need to care for the tenor of what we say. Here in the UK we are 
on the cusp of a vital debate and vote on our future relations with Europe, deep passions are engaged and tempers are running high. Like many people I have been disturbed by the metaphors of violence that MP’s carelessly deploy about one another (‘sharpening the knife’ etc) and by the sheer torrent of angry abuse the MPs themselves face outside parliament. The murder of Jo Cox in 2016, just before our Brexit referendum, showed us how violent language can generate and spill over into actual bloodshed. Back in 2011, before any of these events, I had already become uneasy about the coarsening of our discourse and particularly…
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The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
From early morning til late at night
Meetings, more meetings
Life giving, not life draining
Catching up with a dear friend
Sharing stories and experiences
In the midst of it all, a reminder
We are called to love and to serve
We are called to be a light in the darkness
We are called to share hope in the midst of despair
For these life lessons and for your call, I thank you, Lord
In your mercy, hear this humble prayer
Dona Nobis Pacem
Grant Us Peace
A wee prayer from the heart of your Padre…
“On pilgrimage, as in the art-making process, we risk entering the unknown with the hope of being transformed.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD and Betsey Beckman, MM Awakening the Creative Spirit: Bringing the Arts to Spiritual Direction
The sun has set and the Vesper Lights flicker and glow
A day of planning, meetings, and preparation
A time of fellowship
A time of work with dear co-workers
As we seek to follow you into the New Year
Lord, I ask for your guidance
I ask for your light to show the way
Help me to be your instrument
An instrument of your peace
An instrument of your mercy
An instrument of your love
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…
“When we are waiting for a particular outcome, we are often filled with anxiety as we sit with the unknown. Patience calls us to remember that God’s time (which is beyond our chronological time) is present to us in our waiting. We can experience the fullness of time in the midst of waiting for time to unfold.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD Desert Mothers and Fathers: Early Christian Wisdom Sayings Annotated and Explained
A wonderful post, Ronnie!
Each year the San Francisco LightHouse for the Blind grants the Holman Prize, a $25,000 award given to a blind individual to adventurously explore the world. The inaugural recipient was Ahmet Ustunel, a Turkish national who has always refused the label of “handicapped” or “disabled.”
As a child he did the things all kids do: Rode a bicycle, walked to school, and went fishing with his father. It was those fishing trips that first drew him to the water, to kayaking, where he found a freedom he never knew elsewhere. He brought this love for the sea to the United States when he immigrated to become a teacher of the blind; and it was his love for the sea that earned him the Holman Prize.
The money was used to fund Ahmet’s kayak crossing of the Bosphorus Strait, and the creation of a navigational system that employed sounds, vibrations…
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“Solitude is always meant to replenish us to return to the world, not escape it. The longer the Monk stays in the cave, the harder it can become to leave it, as the pleasures of living in a self-created world can be seductive and more appealing than the flesh and blood world in which we must participate.”
— Christine Valters Paintner, PhD Illuminating the Way: Embracing the Wisdom of Monks and Mystics
