Reflection for March 21, 2012

Ancestors

my ancestors surround me

like walls of a canyon

quiet

stone hard

their ideas drift over me

like breezes at sunset

we gather sticks

and make settlements

what we do is only partly

our own

and partly continuation

down through the chromosomes.

……………………………Harvey Ellis

Reflection for March 7, 2012

Hope has two beautiful daughters---

their names are anger and courage;

anger at the way things are, and

courage to see

they do not remain the way they are.

St. Augustine

Reflection for February 29, 2012

Jesus clearly says the kingdom of heaven is among us (Luke 17:21) or “at hand” (Matthew 3:2, 4: 17). One wonders why we made it into a reward system for later, or an evacuation plan for the next world. Maybe it was easier to obey laws and practice rituals for later than to actually be transformed now.

The price for real transformation is high. It means that we have to change our loyalties from power, success, money, and control (read: “our kingdoms”) to the Lordship of Jesus and the kingdom of God. Henceforth, there is only one thing that is Absolute and in relationship to that, everything else is relative – everything – even the church, even our nation, even national security, even our wealth and our possessions, even our identity and our reputation.

Your god is whatever you trust to validate you and secure you, and the Gospel is saying, “Will the real God please stand up?”

Richard Rohr, O.F.M.

February 22, 2012

Be a gardener

Dig a ditch,

toil and sweat,

and turn the earth upside down

and seek the deepness

and water the plants in time.

Continue this labor

and make sweet floods to run

and noble and abundant fruits

to spring.

Take this food and drink

and carry it to God

as your true worship.

Julian of Norwich

February 15, 2012

The Journey

One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice --
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do --
determined to save
the only life you could save.

~ Mary Oliver ~

February 8, 2012

Love Generously

Rachel Naomi Remen

When I imagine myself as an old woman at the end of my life and ask myself how I will evaluate my time here, there is only one question that concerns me: Did I love well? There are a thousand ways to love other people and the world – with our touch, our words, our silences, our work, our presence. I want to love well. This is my hunger. I want to make love to the world by the way I live in it, by the way I am with myself every day.​ ​

Oriah Mountain Dreamer

Reflection for February 1, 2012

WEAVING IN AND OUT OF LIVES

I'VE COME TO KNOW

THE LETTING GO

AS THE SURRENDER IN THAT WAR

BETWEEN MY ROOTS AND WINGS.

Macrina Wiederkehr

"Seasons of Your Heart"