Holy Peace

 

"Loving God,

Only open

your wings

and I will climb beneath their shadow

and find holy peace.

Amen"

Suzanne M. Lewis

 

 

As the second week of Advent unfolds, we are reminded of the importance of Peace.  For many this seems like one of those things that we may achieve after all that we "need" to do is done.  This time of year it is so easy to look around our lives and find so many things that legitimately need to be done.  We have work commitments, church commitments, family commitments and then when we do stop and look around we see all the need in the world.  Peace, what a great idea, if only I had time. 

 

It has taken me many years to realize that it is actually when we can operate from a place of peace that we are able to get far more done.  Maybe the lists change, maybe the "must dos" change, or the "must haves" are turned on their ear. 

 

The reading today from the "Living in Joyful Hope" speaks to the idea of crawling under the wings of God.  It is when we feel secure and safe that we are most able to invite God into our lives.  The Holy Spirit has a way of turning our world upside down, or perhaps turning in right side up. 

 

As we pray today and reflect on the idea of Peace, I invite us all to slow down.  What does Peace mean to you?  How are you prepared to invite God into your life? 

 



 

"Mary said to the angel, 'How can this be, since I am a virgin?"

Luke 1;34

 

Dear God,

Mary's whole life sounds

a single pure note,

perfectly in tune

with your plan.

Like Mary, I will listen for the music of your joy

with my whole self.

My only wish is to place myself in your hands

so that you can make me vibrate,

like Mary,

one with you.

Amen   

 

                                                                                                                    Suzanne M. Lewis

 

In a reading from "Living in Joyful Hope", Suzanne makes the comment that Mary dares to ask a question of the angel.  She dares to speak up.  How hard it is sometimes for us to use our voices.  For some it is equally important to discern how to use them as instruments of good. not pain or as a weapon.  We live in a world so full of ways to communicate, words and noise surround us.  Sometimes I wonder if anything is really being said. How can we best decide what is important or true. 

 

Recently I was away for a week on silent retreat.  It was a blessing and long overdue.  I have been going on silent retreats for years.  That might seem strange for some of you that know me, and can't imagine me not talking for days at a time.  The truth is that I love the silence, I love the permission to just be and drop all those parts of our personality that allow us to engage in the world around us. 

 

In yesterday's reading, Suzanne tells us that "when we pray, we curl up on God's lap, we share the throne of David and we abide in eternity."  Being away allowed me to remember that feeling.  I was reminded when we step away and turn to God, we also return to our selves, return to the source of being that begins and ends with the divine.  The messages of judgement, fear, and anxiety are all connected to the world around us.  It is in stepping away that we are reminded that God is always with us and that finding our voice, asking God where we can best be used and how is an important part of our journey.  Of course, with that comes the necessity to listen. 

 

"If once we have received a real taste of the sacred, we become hungry for more. Our small awarenss leads us to recognize how scant, how provisional, how circumscribed we are.  And though limited, we thrist to be complete.  To live with this sense of lack is part of our human condition.  To meet this need becomes our quest.  Our hunger, though painful, is a tremendous gift.  It animates and energizes us for all the work the Spirit invites us to do. Our huger impels us to seek the Eternal."

 

 

In this season of advent, we are called to make room, to be still and come to know God.  We are called to look throught the darkness in our lives and the world and see the glimer of light.  We are also called to be that light.  During this time we are also inudated with messages about buying the right gift, baking the right food, making joy and light in ways the world tells us will fill us up, will satisfy that hunger. 

 

I love the holidays, I love the fun, the gifts, and the smell of homemade cookies.  Christmas music of all kinds makes my heart sing.  All that said, my hunger for more is always only fed by the spirit.  I am fooled often and try to quell that hunger with any number of other things.  But in the end, it is when I step back, when I am able to go into the quiet and rest in the loving lap of my God that I know how truly blessed I am.  It is then that I know blessing and joy. 

 

"If we can honestly and bravely face the truth of our finitude, even while refusing to abandon our conviction that there must be a response to our deepest need, we will soon discover an interior door.  This door opens onto a world of wonder. With hearts open, we will be propelled on a journey to seek everywhere , and in every person we meet, after the face of God.  We will find God in the most unlikely, most humble and ordinary places!  And on that day we will have all we need."  

 

Let us give thanks this day for the hunger that reminds us of our yearning, reminds us of the all powerful, all consuming love of God. 

 

Let us place ourselves in the longing arms of God on this day.  Let us use our voice to ask the important questions.  Let us find ways to the the light in the world that best serves God. 



LIving in joyful Hope

 

 

 

As I was wondering what kind of Adult Formation I wanted to do at St. John's I knew we needed to try something a little different.  People's schedules, gas prices and the mere distance that people must travel to get here all contributed my deciding to try something new.  This year we have begun using Facebook as a forum for a discussion on the book, Living in Joyful Hope, by Suzanne M. Lewis.  I have also told people in the congregation that are not on Facebook, that I will post things here and all are encouraged to comment.  The group has taken off in a really exciting way.  If you are reading this and would like to be sent an invitation to the group, please let me know and I would be happy to include you.  It is only a closed group for privacy reasons. But in no way means to exclude.  We are all learning this new field of technology. 

All of that is an introduction to the thoughts that will be posted here during Advent. 

"The light of the Good Shepherd is more solid, more dependable than any object found in the physical world. When we lean against it it bears all our weight. And when we abandon ourselves to it completely, it will lift us up."

During this Advent time, what gets in your way of allowing God to love you into wholeness and light?

 

Reflction from Day 1:

‎"In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin's name was Mary." Luke 1:26-27

I love being reminded of the wonder of God. In light of the many things that have already been shared here, the readings for today are food for the soul. They are also ideas that we are all wrestling with and longing to accept.

" God intervened in our history. God created time but lives in the ageless eternity of wonder. Our God sanctified time and made of it a tabernacle where he might be forever revealed. God, whose omnipresence transcends all points of the compass, took sanctuary in a town, thereby making of town life something both awesome and hold. God will not be co...

nfined by limitless possibility!"

During this season of Advent we spend time reflecting on Mary and the birth of Jesus. We are reminded that Jesus is the way that God was able to come and walk and "be" with us. This reading helps me remember that God also becomes present and lives among each of us. As each of us are born, God becomes a little more manifest in the world. That is not to say that we are not flawed, that we are perfect or "God like". But that even in our fallibility and humanness we are able and called to live out God's grace in the world around us.

"God reached across the chasm that separates us from transcendence so that we who inhabit our own historical moment, our own town, may live richly, full of grace now, here."

"What a responsibility you have given me,
to be your eyes, your lips, your hands!
You invite me to pay attention
to what you do now, with my own hands, with the
hands of stranger, outcasts, the friendless, children.
Your marvels are everywhere!"

Last week I was on retreat. Each time I would say something that would negate myself or what I had said, the spiritual director would say: "That is just a distraction, God does not work through fear." How would our lives feel differently if we were able to look at the negative, fear based messages as a distraction, and imagine being God's instrument at work in the world around us. How can God best use us today?

Thank you all for this chance to spend Advent together. God is soooo  good!

 

Reflection from Day 2:

 

‎"And he came to her and said,, 'Greetings..." Luke 1:28a

One of the many interesting things about reading scripture is the chance to look at the words, to remember that the New Testament was written originally in Greek. I love her uncovering for us that the original meaning of the word 'Greeting' is Chaire, or Rejoice! What a wonderful and different way to say Hi, especially if you are an angel(:

As Tina very aptly reminded us when God comes to us in scripture the words that are used are important. God does not seem to muddle things up with chit chat. When we are approached by God, the words 'Don't be afraid' are always there. As I read the word Rejoice today, it felt very joyful.

After reading the mediation I took Riley and myself for a long walk. I did not listen to any technology and we were in the quiet of the woods. I kept hearing the word , rejoice, in my head. On this damp, dreary, day I was walking through the woods rejoicing. God comes to us in the most unlikely and yet, perfect places.

"On the brief occasions when we do experience joy, we are almost always surprised, or even shocked, into it. For this reason, joy seems to come more easily to children-for them so much of life is new and surprising. But by the time we reach adulthood, even the experience of being surprised can seem to be routine."

When my son was a toddler, he had this way of doing joy that took over his whole body. He would look at something, or open up a box, look up and with wide eyes and a perfectly pitched noise, you knew that you were looking at joy. His father and I used to say that he did joy really well. How do we do joy? Why as adults do we need to become jaded or used to the wonders of the world around us?

On the walk in the woods we took today, we always pass a tree that has many branches. They begin low to the ground and progress up into the sky. When my children were young we would walk another path in the woods and there was a tree very similiar to this one. Each time I walk by it I think of my son and how he always called it the bear tree. I can see in my minds eye my daughter sitting in the branches posing for pictures. I can remember thinking on a day, on that path that I always wanted to remember this feeling, this day. I remember thinking they will be grown soon, they will be off. Today as I passed by that tree, I rejoice, I give thanks for the memory of my children and the bear tree. I rejoice in the memory and the grace that it brings. I also rejoice and give thanks for the wonderful and amzing young people that they are becoming. 

"Perfect Love desires our puny, stumbling love. Joy invites us to partidipate with our own imperfect joy in the divine life. "

" O LOrd,
I know
that you rejoice
in the work of your hands.
When I work with my own hands
please let me fill the world
with the glorious melody
that I become when you touch
the ten strings
of my heart.
Let others join this heavienly music,
until that day when the whole world is filled
with your song.
Amen "

My prayer is that we allow ourselves to remember that God is always with us. That we do not need to be afraid, and that we are greated with Rejoicing!!!!

 

Civil Conversation

 

The Civil Conversations Project (CCP)

 

Recently I came upon a resource that intrigues me, and draws me back over and over.  It is called The Civil Conversation Project  .http://www.onbeing.org/project/civil-conversations-project/1960   On the top of the web page it says:  ideas and tools for healing our fractured civic spaces.  This seems like such a novel idea in this season of political retoric and constant commercials.  How can we learn to listen to each other and not live in the fear of losing the illusion of power, control or money?  How can we learn that we all called to learn more about the world we live in, be in relationship with those me most don't understand, and find God in the midst of those very things.  How are you challenged by these conversations? 

Pick up your brush

 

 

 

"Man is asked to make of himself what he is supposed to become to fulfill his destiny."
  Paul Tillich

I myself do nothing. The Holy Spirit accomplishes all through me. "
William Blake

Fall has come to the North East. The air is crisp, the sun dances off the water and the leaves have begun to splash color on the canvas that is theirs alone.

Almost two years ago, I began the journey back to fitness. This was the direct result of turning 50. On one of the many forms of technoly that I gather information, I heard that to maintain your weight one must walk at least 10,000 steps. After those steps would be the ones that would allow your body to burn calories. This shouldn't be so hard, I thought.

On my next trip out, I bought a pedometer. For any new endeavor, doesn't a person need new equipment? In my mind I thought that if I began the process of making some kind of investment, I would stay with it.  Let me clarify here, this had never worked before, but maybe this time would be different. Years ago, I heard a wise woman say that the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. This thought never occurred to me, I was on a mission.

For the next week, I wore my pedometer. This was actually a great exercize, pun intended. Not one day that week did I get even close to 10,000 steps. What I came to realize was that my life consisted of moving from one seat to the other. Seat at home, seat in the car, seat at meetings, seat in people's homes, back to seat in my home. Whew, what a day!! To say this was discouraging and a bit of a wake up call would be an understatement.

What am I going to do? For years I had heard about this "Couch to 5K" program. There was no doubt that the couch part fit me, but I had never seen myself as a runner. But, it was free, I could do it on my own time and on my own terms. Ok, back to the store! New sneakers were an important investment in my new endeavor. All the websites agreed that this was necessary and I agreed. I will say that this was a good investment and was important.

I began slugging through my neighborhood. It became clear how very out of shape I had let myself become. Earlier in my life, I was very active in sports, coached and just loved being active. I found myself really thinking about how long ago that had been. Time passes sometimes and the narrative of our lives unfold, time does not occur to us. I had been busy raising children, working, getting my masters degree two states away, doing internships, changing careers, leaving a marriage, relationships, new commitments, new jobs, moving to a new community. This does not feel like a sedentary life, but somehow that is what it had become.

How do we abandon our physical health? We carry these bodies around. Wait, they carry us around. Yes, we are blessed with the amazing physical structure that is our body. How often do we thank it for all it does? How often are we aware of the miracle that is our physical structure? I became very aware of how much I have taken my good health for granted. Being blessed is one thing, being stupid is another. I joke, but when I became aware of the lack of care and attention I paid to my physical health, I knew that I had to do something.

With God's help it has been almost two years since I bought that pedometer. It has been a journey of coming to terms with the reality of my own limits. But with that has come the empowering experience of working hard, getting to know myself in a new way, and learning that my physical being and spiritual being live in the same house.

On this day, I was able to put on my sneakers, not the same ones. On this day I was able to go out into the beautiful fall morning, put on my ear buds, listen to a wonderful book, see the beauty around me and run(not what some would call run, but for me it is), not really fast, but steady for 1 hour. Isn't that what life requires of us? To show up, have the proper equipment, listen to the narrative that calls us that day and pay attention to the world around us. I am grateful to be learning the patience that running teaches me. It is only for this day. I can train and learn and improve. I am growing and thriving even on the days that call for rest.

We are called to be present and attentive to the physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual aspects of who we are. The order and perfection of these areas are not important. What is important on the days when we feel like we do not know what direction to take, what path calls us, where are we supposed to turn, put on what ever are your sneakers and go one step at a time. Perhaps you are a painter, pick up your brush, perhaps you are a photographer, pick up your camera, Perhaps a knitter, pick up your needles. Whatever calls you to be still of heart and mind, whatever allows you to be present to God, pick it up.

Blessing

There are times in our lives when we are aware of new beginnings more than others.  In truth each day is full of new beginnings.  We open our eyes in the morning, become aware of our surroundings, stretch our limbs and anticipate the new day ahead.  Some mornings we feel like life will forever be exactly what it is today.  We may want to cling to that reality or we may feel very discouraged by it.  Either way, what I know to be true, is that with each breath comes the passing of time.  With each breath comes the dawn of something new. 

"We seem to think that beginning is setting out from a lonely point along some line of direction into the unknown.  This is not the case.  Shelter and energy come alive when a beginning is embraced.  Goethe says that once the commitment is made, destiny conspires with us to support and realize it.  We are never as alone in our beginnings as it might seem at the time.  A beginning is ultimately an invitation to open toward the gifts and growth that are stored up for us.  To refuse to begin can be an act of great self-neglect."     John O'Donohue

September is a time when the weather begins to change, people go back to school and schedules are required again.  How is it on this day you can embrace the blessings that await you?  How can we each see today as an invitation? 

A Morning Offering- John O'Donohue

I bless the night that nourished my heart
To set the ghosts of longing free
Into the flow and figure of dream
That went to harvest from the dark
Bread for the hunger no one sees.

All that is eternal in me
Welcomes the wonder for this day,
The field of brightness it creates
Offering time for each thing
To arise and illuminate.

I place on the altar of dawn:
The quiet loyalty of breath,
The tent of thought where I shelter,
Waves of desire I am shore to
And all beauty drawn to the eye.

May my mind come alive today
To the invisible geography
That invites me to new frontiers,
To break the dead shell of yesterdays,
To risk being disturbed and changed,.

May I have the courage today
To live the life that I would love,
To postpone my dream no longer
But do at last what I came here for
And waste my heart on fear no more. 

"Be Still and know that I am God"

"Be Still and know that I am God"  Psalm 46:10

Why is it so hard to quiet our minds and be?  Are there people other than me that try to be present, but when the day takes off, and life begins, can become completely attached to circumstances.  There are days when I feel like a kite flying high above the beach, dipping, climbing, twirling.  All while on the outside, looking calm or maybe at worst restless. 

" How we relate moment by moment to what is happening on the spot is all there really is.  We give up all hope of fruition and in the the process we just keep learning what it means to appreciate being right here."  Pema Chodron

Reading that this is the moment in time, right now, that we have.  Reading that my work here is to be present to that is liberating, while at the same time frustrates me.  Of course, this is the very process that lives in my head always. ' Breath and take in the liberation,' comes the voice in my head.  Why can it be so hard to hold onto the moment? 

Holding on to a kite on a windy day at the beach takes strength, concentration, flexibility and being grounded.  Sometimes it can feel like wrestling with the wind.  Holding on for dear life.  We learn ways to play with the string that impacts the flight, we learn tricks about how to move and play with the wind, but at the end of the day, the wind knows best.  Ahh, could this be the Holy Spirit? 

When I am present I find myself walking by lilies in the rain and must stop and pay attention to the beauty.  The colors and the abundance of blossoms and buds remind me of all the blessings we have.  I imagine God creating lilies and being so excited about how beautiful they were, that God couldn't stop painting them.  When I am present I am not worrying about what I haven't done, or what needs to be done, I am payng attention to what God has put in front of me in that moment. 

Pena Chodrom is an American Buddhist nun.  She has written many books, but the one I am reading now is called, Taking the Leap, Freeing Ourselves from Old Habits and Fears."  One of the things that I am reminded of as I work with this book is the reality that when we are on a spiritual path, God is never finished with us.  There are many days when I would guess we could stop and look at our lives and marvel at what we are able to do , what we have learned, who we are.  And yet, how often are we aware of all the things that get in out way of continuing to grow and learn.  How often do we fall back to a comfortable, old pattern.  How often does the critical voice drown any of that out?

"It comes from continually strengthening habits of grasping and aversion and distancing ourselves.  In particular in comes from our internal conversations-our judgements, embellishments, and labels about what's happening." 

We live in a world where we are told all the time that something outside ourselves will make us better.  Or if not better, will numb the pain or anxiety of the moment.  Maybe we just don't know how to be?  Maybe we have been taught that 'being' has no value, maybe someone said you were supposed to be productive, and after all just 'being' is not productive.  We live in a world that encourages us to strengthen those habits of grasping outside ourselves to keep a distance from that quiet place inside. 

When I am fighting with the string and the kite is dancing above me, I feel like the kite is the present moment.  I feel like the kite can rejoice in the rise and fall of the wind, can use the construction of itself to fly in a special way.  God has created us each in a special and sacred way.  We are each called to rise and fall, we are called to ride the wind in our special way. 

Today, the rain is falling, the grass and flowers are giving thanks for the long awaited drink.  Today, I am present to this moment.  Moving fast and being distracted are so easy, but with the knowledge that there can be breaks from that we can step back, take a deep breath and just be. 

"Instead of getting better and better at avoiding, we can learn to accept the present moment as if we had invited it, and work with it instead of against it, making it our ally rather than our enemy." 

What is your passion?

On this beautiful summer day I am so aware of all that I have to be thankful for.  Recently, without even thinking about it, I have began my prayers thanking God for food, clothing and shelter.  Prayer is such a wonderful, magical thing.  When we stop and pause, close our eyes and open our hearts and minds to God, it is then that we are able to hear and speak those words we most need to hear. 

St. John's has just begun a month of paying particular attention to the Millennium Development Goals.  It is great timing for me as the Rector to do this because it allows me to look at the Gospel through the lens in yet another way.  But as a woman who has lived in the United States all my life, it is a wonderful way to reflect on how privileged I have and continue to be. 

I will post some links that can give you some information as well as some of the wonderful ways that people around the world are reaching out to help, "the least of these." 

What goal do you relate to most?  What is your passion?  Find one, what can you do? 

Old Turtle spoke again:

The car is parked, I open the door and stand up.  The day is beautiful, the sun high in the sky and the air clean.  I begin the process of stretching my tired and tight muscles.  My head is busy with the messages of resistance.  I pull out the smart phone, get it ready to track my workout, and set an app up so that I have something to listen to instead of the noise in my own head.  I set off on this beautiful day for some much needed exercise. 

As I begin my very determined warm up walk, I glance to my left.  The noise in my head stops, the self absorbed fascination on my sore muscles disappear.  There is a large turtle working very hard, and there are two people watching.  Very uncharactic of me, I stop, take my ear phones out and walk over to where others are watching.  A young girl looks at me and says, "She is laying eggs". 

With a steady determination the turtle continues her work.  I find myself feeling like I am witnessing something very intimate.  Quiet respect is in the air that surrounds us.  I feel grateful to be present. 

I took some pictures with my smart phone, which always seems to have a use, even in moments like these.  Said a quick prayer of intercession and thanksgiving, and moved on to finish my workout with a new view of the day. 

Old Turtle and the Broken Truth, by Douglas Wood, is a wonderful book.  All day yesterday I found myself wanting to find it.  "Old Turtle returns in a timeless story about love, acceptance, and the nature of truth."  How do we see God in the world around us?  How do we listen to the wisdom of nature. 

"Old Turtle spoke again:

"Remember this also, Little One," she said.
"The Broken Truth, and life itself, will be mended
only when one person meets another-someone
from a different place or with a different face or
different ways-and sees and hears...herself.
Only then will the people know that every person,
every being, is important, and that the world 
was made for each of us." 

On this day, the sun is out, the air is clear.  Let us each stop and listen and look around the world this day.  Let us meet each other, all of God's creatures, and know that we are all loved. 

A Happy Life?

During this season of Graduations, transitions, and new beginnings, I find myself reflecting on what means the most to me.  As I look back, the thing that I most treasure is spending time with those I love. 

  It is those people, and those times that have formed me. It is my prayer that this  will continue to be true and when I forget what is really important God will place someone in my life to remind me. 

Anna Quindlen is a writer.  In 2000 she published a small book that are some of her reflections on
what it is to make a happy life.  I share the following thoughts.  Let her words remind us all today of what really matters to us. 

"Don't ever forget the words on a postcard that my father sent me last year: 'If you win the rat race, you're still a rat."

"Or what John Lennon wrote before he was gunned down in the driveway of the Dakota: 'LIfe is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans."

"That's the only advice I can give,.  After all, when you look at the faces of a class of graduation seniors you realize that each student has only one thing that no one else has.  When you leave college, there are thousands of people out there with the same degree you have; when you get a job, there will be thousands of people doing what you want to do for a living."

"But you are the only person alive who has sole custody of your life,  Your particular life.  Your entire life.  Not just your life at a desk, or your life on a bus, or in the car, or at the computer.  Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart.  Not just your bank account, but your soul. "

"Turn off your cell phone.  Turn off your regular phone, for that matter.  Keep still.  Be present. "

"Get a life in which you are not alone.  Find people you love, and who love you.  And remember that love is not leisure, it is work.  Each time I look at my diploma, I remember that I am still a student, still learning every day how to be human.  Send an e-mail. Write a letter.  Kiss your mom.  Hug your dad. "

"Get a life in which you are generous.  Look around at the azaleas making fuchsia star bursts in spring; look at a full moon hanging silver in a black sky on a cold night.  And realize that life is glorious, and that you have no business taking it for granted.  Care so deeply about its goodness that you want to spread it around.  Take the money you would have spent on beers in a bar and give it to charity.  Work in a soup kitchen.  Tutor a seventh-grader. "

"All of us want to do well.  But if we do not do good, too, then doing well will never be enough." 

These are thoughts that remind me of the many blessings I have in my life.  The many lessons I continue to learn, and the loved ones that make it all matter.  What does it make you think of? 

"To whom do I belong? To God or to the world?

"To whom do I belong?  To God or to the world? "
Henri Nouwen

On this Tuesday morning, it is dark, overcast and cool.  After a beautiful weekend, one filled with a myriad of things, it is quiet, and that is good.  The world calls us to so many different things and places.  We have work roles, social activities, and family responsibilities.  We have life in the here and now.  There are times in our lives when we need to step back and listen, step back and look around us, step back and wonder.

"Often I am like a small boat on the ocean, completely at the mercy of its waves.  All the time and energy I spend in  keeping some kind of balance and preventing myself from being tipped over and drowning shows that my life is mostly a struggle for survival: not a holy struggle, but an anxious struggle resulting from the mistaken idea that it is the world that defines me."

Henri Nouwen

The Return of the Prodigal Son, A Story of Homecoming, by Henri Nouwen, continues to be part of my daily spiritual reading right now.  As I wrote previously, I am very drawn to the idea of home being the image or reality of resting in God palms.  Home being the reminder that we are in fact originally loved and brought forth by a divine source that loves us beyond our wildest imaginings.

The reflections of today talk about why we all feel so called into the world around us, why we so often, even without our own permission, turn away.  It is so easy to want to be successful and secure in the many ways the world defines that.   We look around and see cars we wish we had, technology that would "fix" us, cloths that would tell the world we are terrific.  Each of these things when looked at from the right perspective are fun and human.  But when we allow ourselves to become so lost that we believe that our well being rests on the thoughts and reactions of others, we have left home.  We are on the lonely road of looking outside ourselves for the self worth and purpose that comes from being a "Beloved Child of God."

"As I look at my spiritual journey, my long and fatiguing trip home, I see how full it is of guilt about the past and worries about the future.  I realize my failures and know that I have lost the dignity of my sonship, but I am not yet able to fully believe that where my failings are great,  grace is always greater."
Henri Nouwen

My human experience tells me that my walk with God is one that is in constant flux.  Not because God goes anywhere, or because there is any inconstancy in the message of faith.  The ebbs and flows originate directly from that place deep within us that questions our worthiness.  We know our longings, our desires and our shortcomings.  Those is our lives that love us the most know some of these places and walk the journey too.  I believe that we all have those human, broken or weakened places.  But, when I sit or walk and get really quiet, when I spend my time with God, I want to be some much more than my brokenness.  One of the most difficult and powerful elements of a life with God, is that of being vulnerable and open to love and forgiveness.  

"Receiving forgiveness requires a total willingness to let God be God and do all the healing, restoring, and renewing. As long as I want to do even a part of that myself, I end up with partial solutions, such as becoming a hired servant.  As a hired servant, I can still keep my distance, still revolt, reject, strike, run away, or complain about my pay.  As the beloved son, I have to claim my full dignity and begin preparing myself to become the father."    Henri Nouwen

Today, let us remember that "grace is always greater."  We are the beloved children of God.  We are wonderful and wounded.  We are faithful and flawed.  We are blessed to be on the journey of faith and know that home is just the next breath away.  

Today, let us remember that home is where God is, and God is everywhere.  Let us try to imagine God's loving arms reaching our to welcome us home.  

Home

Return of the Prodigal Son - Rembrandt

The Return of the Prodigal Son, A Story of Homecoming, by Henri J.M. Nouwen recently jumped off my bookcase and into my hands.  This is an common occurrence for me.  Many of you might think that I am once again exaggerating this experience.  On the one hand you may be correct, the book did not actually fly into mid-air, float an undetermined distance and find my open hands.  Over the years I have become accustomed to the experience of picking up a random book, opening it up, and knowing that the message within is for me at that time.  This book, at this time is one of those moments. 

Henri Nouwen is one of the most spoken of, read and beloved spiritual /religious writers and teachers of our times.  I remember years ago in my first class in seminary, being assigned, "Life of the Beloved."  The Reverend Margaret Bullit-Jonas was the professor.  Years later I came to know that Henri was one of her closest friends. 

The result of opening the pages of this book was the peeling away of yet another layer of resistance, denial and self-loathing.  Many times in the last 13 years I have given this book as a gift.  Each time I write something inside.  One of the things I find myself saying over and over is that as I began to read these pages, I had the emotional and physical sensation of taking a warm, loving bath in the spirit.  How can we be wrapped in the warmth of God's love through the written word?  When God's deep and profound love for us is broken open, is expressed in a way that speaks to those wounded, painful places.  Henri speaks of God and our journey in faith in a way that is vulnerable and raw. There is no defense to God's grace. 

This famous and well known scholar, teacher, preacher and priest speaks openly and honestly about his struggles, our struggles.  The path of loneliness, insecurity, fear and inadequacy.  We live in a society that tells us repeatedly that with the correct partner, pill, outfit or education we can be perfect.  We can feel whole and well and loved.  We will feel and be "part of".  As with so many things in life this is just false advertising. 

In the book about the Prodigal Son, Henri calls it a story of homecoming.  Early in the book he speaks about the word homecoming assumes that there has been a leaving.  Leaving home, walking away from the warmth and security of all you know.  When we leave home there are many ways to do this.  There is a gathering of lessons, a developmental desire to embark on our own, a need to make our own way.  We are each created to be our own whole and individual spirit in the world.  We are each created to live into the life we are given.  Maturity and healing come when this is done in the context of the whole.  We are not an island, we are all formed by those around us.  Whether healthy or not, full or lacking, we are formed. 

In the story of the Prodigal Son, the youngest son asks his father for all that is his, he doesn't want to wait until the father dies.  This is rude and inappropriate now.  But in those days it was beyond reproach.  This would be unthinkable.  It was as if the son was wishing his father dead.  The context of this must be taken into account.  The son receives his inheritance from his father and leaves.  We get no sense that he turns to look, that he even winces as he leaves.  We are told that he goes forth and squanders it.  In the painting above, we see Rembrandt's vision of the father welcoming home the wayward son. 

"Rembrandt's painting of the father welcoming his son displays scarcely any external movement. In contrast to his 1636 etching of the prodigal son-full of action, the father running to the son and the son throwing himself at his father's feet-the Hermitage painting, made about thirty years later, is one of the utter stillness.  The father's  touching the son is an everlasting blessing; the son resting against his father's breast is an eternal peace."    Henri Nouwen

Henri reminds us that in the parable of the prodigal son we are drawn yet another picture of the boundlessness of God's compassionate love.  How do we leave home in our lives today?  How can we feel on the outside, how can we go forth and squander the love and abundance that God has blessed us with? 

"Leaving home is, then, much more than an historical event bound to time and place.  It is a denial of the spiritual reality that I belong to God with every part of my being, that God holds me safe in an eternal embrace, that I am indeed carved in the palms of God's hands and hidden in their shadows.  Leaving home means ignoring the truth that God has 'fashioned me in secret, moulded me in the depths of the earth and knitted me together in my mother's womb.' "  Henri Nouwen

We live differently, we love differently, we experience the world differently when we are able to remember that we are God's beloved, that the spiritual reality is the one true way of being. 

As I continue to read this book I will be reflecting on the many ways we are pulled away from the home of our being.  The many temptations that lure us away from the loving messages that are God. 

"Yet over and over again I have left home.  I have fled the hands of blessing and run off to faraway places searching for love!  This is the great tragedy of my life and of the lives of so many I meet on my journey."  Henri Nouwen

In this day, as the rain comes down, the sun hides behind the clouds and the radiators creak, let us take a deep breath.  Let know and remember that we are God's beloved child.  We are home when we are not lured away by messages from outside our hearts and souls.  Let us also be gentle on ourselves as we are reminded that we all turn and leave, we all walk away.  But let us also remember that waiting for us, with loving arms, is the God that weeps with joy at our return. 

Can you appreciate the ride?

The sun is out and the birds are singing up a storm.  The dog and I just got back from a wonderful walk in the woods.  Everything was alive and green, the water was running over rocks and branches that have fallen into the stream during the winter.  I find myself wondering how many colors of green there actually are.  I am sure that I could google it, and that someone out there has made a study of this.  For today, I don't want to know the number.  For today I want the magic and mystery of many shades of green to linger in their homes.  

Recently I have found myself talking to people that are feeling very stressed and wanting to go on vacation.  People that know that they need to slow down their minds and relax and yet, don't know how.  During these conversations I have found myself laughing at myself and also reflecting on how hard we work on relaxing.  Why is it that our brains work so fast?  How is it that we have adopted the belief that we are never "done"?  So many believe that if and when a project is completed, it is still then not good enough.  Of course the irony of this is that with all our technology and techniques to "Getting Things Done," a great book by David Allen, we do far less than our ancestors.  

As a society we have created tools that we can use to relax.  Sometimes all this does is make us feel like if we don't use the tool correctly we will not relax and then the task is not complete.  There are two different kinds of people that are going to read this.  Some of you are going to be shaking your heads in identification and hopefully some laughing at ourselves.  Others may be shaking your heads with  wonder and concern for the rest of us.  Both of these make me smile, as there are times when I find myself in both camps.  

We are a people that has more opportunity and blessing that ever before.  With this comes choice and opportunity.  When I find myself in times of racing from task to task, times of feeling like that gerbil on the wheel, I know that I must step back.  It is at those times that even though for the most part my intentions are good, my belief is that I am doing or being what I am supposed to, I am really taking myself too seriously.  It is at those times that somewhere along the line I have taken on God's job and jumped right in the drivers seat!!  

Those that have heard me preach know that I believe without a shadow of a doubt God has a tremendous sense of humor.  With that comes compassion and a tremendous capacity for forgiveness.  Much like a mother with her children.  In my minds eye I can imagine a smiling, loving God letting me go ahead and drive for a while.  Maybe at times having a Dr. Phil moment and asking, "How's that working for you?"  But even in those times, there is a loving and knowing smile.  

When this awareness rises to the top and I am able to stop and slow down I can hear:
 "Be still, and know that I am God,"  Psalm 46:10.  There are times when I hear these words in my head that I have a physical reaction.  My shoulders release, I take a full breath and release it, my muscles that I had no idea were holding on tight, relax.  

"Be still and know that I am God"  

God is found in those times when we are present to the moment.  When we are in conversation with someone that we care about, when we are meeting someone new and are encountering their story.  God is present when we are opening our hearts, minds and spirit to the world around us.  We cannot do that when we are racing around, even if it is in the name of God, or for the betterment of the world.  

What are the ways and places that you relax?  How can you find times of peace and joy?  Take some time today to be still, to take a deep breath, to let God be God.  

Gracious God, Thank you for all the blessings of this life.  Thank you for food, clothing and shelter.  Thank you for our loved ones, known and unknown. Help us to be ever mindful of those less fortunate.   Please help us be present in this day with open hearts and open minds so that we can go forth into the world able to be the instruments you most need us to be.  

Gracious God, help us appreciate the ride(:  Amen

Whose kitchen table can you picture?

Returning from vacation is often a mixed bag of feelings.  On this day I am wondering about which direction to take, which task to approach first.  It is amazing how we can see the world differently when we are not exhausted and empty.  We are physical beings that are comprised of so much more that just skin and bones.  Each of us knows that and yet the concrete realities of life get our attention and sometimes seem more urgent than the effuse things like tending to the soul or spirit.

Recently I have been mindful again of the role the arts play in the tending of my spirit.  What difference does it make to spend time with broken glass?  How could playing with fabric, making them into designs, south the soul or mind?  Why would anyone want to work with water color pencils?

Growing up I remember sitting at my grandmothers kitchen table.  It is located against the far wall of her kitchen.  This is the gathering place, the place where all important functions of the house take place.  A wood stove is on one side wall and the warmth that emanates from that makes the room toasty.  To my left is a big picture window.  The Saco river and the mountains stretch out as far as the eye can see.  But all I am aware of at this moment is my grandmothers full attention, she is teaching me to sew.

Years have passed since this time.  We spent many afternoons in this space, learning how to use the sewing machine that she eventually gave me.  Learning how to thread the needle, thread the bobbin, press open seams and sew a straight line.  Right sides together, putting in a zipper, and learning to hand sew the hems.  Yet, even with all the years that have passed, each time I pull out the sewing machine I use now, each time I press open a seam, I am brought back to those times.

Whether it is knitting, sewing, working with glass or paints, there is a quieting of my mind that allows me to sit with the spirit in a way few other things do.  These are the times I am able to remember that it is God who forms me, remember what I value and cherish, remember how and through whom God forms me.


Psalm 139

Lord, you have searched me out and known me;
you know my sitting down and my rising up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.

You trace my journeys and my resting-places
and are acquainted with all my ways.

Indeed, there is not a word on my lips,
but you, O Lord, know it altogether.

You press upon me behind and before
and lay your hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
it is so high that I cannot attain to it.

Where can I go then from your Spirit?
where can I flee from your presence?

If I climb up to heaven, you are there;
if I make the grave my bed, you are there also.

If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

Even there your hand will lead me
and your right hand hold me fast.

If I say, "Surely the darkness will cover me,
and the light around me turn to night,

Darkness is not dark to you;
the night is as bright as the day;
darkness and light to you are both alike.

For you yourself created my inmost parts;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I will thank you because, I am marvelously made;
your works are wonderful, and I know it well.

My body was hidden from you,
while I was being made in secret
and woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes beheld my limbs, yet unfinished in the womb;
all of them were written in your book;
they were fashioned day by day,
when as yet there was none of them.

How deep I find your thoughts, O God!
how great is the sum of them!

If I were to count them, they would be more in number
than the sand;
to count them all, my life span would need to
be like yours.

What helps you to quiet your mind?  What in your life helps you to tend your soul and your Spirit?  We are each marvelously made, we are each here to live out the story that is being written through us.  Who are the characters in your life that have been important?  Who's kitchen can you picture in your minds eye?

Today I give thanks for my grandmother and mother that were both very gifted and talented in the fiber arts.  I am grateful for the passion and creativity that they have nurtured in me.

What makes you think?

Recently I have spent a fair amount of time thinking, researching and working with ideas of Theology.  What does it mean and most importantly why do we care?

Religion is one of those places in our lives that has it's own language.  When I first entered seminary it became clear very quickly that everyone there spoke a language that I didn't know.  What was hermeneutics, soteriology or dogmatics?  I had no clue about my theology of salvation, redemption or any thing else for that matter.  I remember someone coming up to me after a class and saying they would really like to talk about my theology of redemption, he really liked it and wanted to know more.  Walking away all I could think was what had he heard me say that he deemed theology and what did he want to know more about? 

What I knew at that point in my life was that I love God with a passion that just wouldn't go away.  My belief in God and my experience of God was one that was central to my life and my understanding of how I lived.  God was something that was ever present in my life, even when I turned my back.  It was this unshakable thing inside me that no one could take away.  Somehow I knew that the only way my life would make sense would be if I could bring a message of hope, healing and love that I knew to be God, to those in my midst. 

But what was this whole Theology thing? 

A definition of Theology is: "The study of religious faith, practice, and experience, especially the study of God and of God's relation to the world."  Well, that is actually very helpful.  I wonder if you take a breath and reflect for a second, could you share how you feel about God, why God matters, or why God doesn't matter.  Maybe God matters profoundly, but the Church or religion makes little difference.  How do we give thanks for the many blessings in our lives, and where do we look to for courage, hope and direction?  What does community have to do with God, is it necessary or helpful?

Words are a wonderful and necessary thing.  But, in many instances, they can bog us down, confuse us, or even make us feel less than.  I would invite you to think of yourself as a theologian for a while.  Look at the world through the lens of faith.  Where do you see God?  Why are you reading this post at all?  Making meaning of your life through the lens of your faith is theology. 

"Where people pray is church, where there is church there is no loneliness."  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Over time I have come to know and apprecite the language of our faith and of the religious traditions.  Reading and coming to know about those in our past that spent much time in prayer and reflection giving voice to the mystery that is God is an amzing gift of the church.  It also allows us to deepen our faith in ways we cannot imagine.  Let us begin again by reminding ourselves how much God matters to us and why.  

Thank you for mud puddles.

"That child is the self through whom we have access to the vitality and youthfulness of God. She or he is the one who reflects the creativity, sensitivity, and vibrant imagination of the Love which is our maker and mother." Martin L Smith


Years ago when I was first starting in recovery from addiction, one of the models for healing was getting to know your "inner child".  For some, this was a crazy idea, and for others they were unable to ever balance the adult and the child.  It was a very helpful and important tool in healing for me. Having compassion for myself and learning what self-care and support were supposed to look like really became possible when I was able to use the image of  that child. 

I remember vividly picturing a young girl, with long braids, overalls and bright red high top converse sneakers.  Imagining her on this piece of property my family owned years ago on Keaser Lake in Lovell, Maine was wonderful.  It was quiet there, peaceful and I can still see the light dancing off the water.  Meditations using this imagery were important times in developing my relationship with God.  It was time when I could step back, stop the noise in my head and feel God's presence. 

Why is the model so helpful?  As I write this I don't even like the language, model.  Why as adults do we let the spirit and authenticity of our child be in the past?  Why are we so determined that to be whole, to be successful, to be OK, we must be grown up? 

It is true and important that as adults we are required to maintain responsibilities that children do not.  We are expected to behave in certain ways that are socially acceptable.  This is fine and good.  But when we get to busy, when we let ourselves be taken over by the responsibilities of this life we have created, sometimes we forget how to breath.  Sometimes we forget the playful, creative nature that God placed in us and that God values so much. 

"Children have authority in the kingdom; they embody and communicate the vulnerability, the openness, the elan, the reaching out for life of God's Spirit."  Martin Smith

Today is a day of restlessness, expectancy, and the knowledge of change on the horizon.  Childlike curiosity and joy are blessings that are within our grasp.  The openness and love of the child within each of us longs for our attention.  We must not negate that part of ourselves as not important, not serious enough, not of value.  It is that part of ourselves that can best help us see and experience the mystery and beauty of our lives, it is that part of ourselves that can help us rejoice in the everyday. 

Gracious God,  Thank you for this day.

Thank you for high top red sneakers.

Thank you for braids that were sometimes to tight.

Thank you for the gift of playfulness,

for curiosity,

for laughter,

for mud puddles,

for marbles and street chalk.

Thank you for jump ropes.

Thank you for bikes.

Gracious God, Thank you for the child within each of us

that longs for your love and knows it far better than we

do on most days. 

Thank you for the patience that child has with us as we move

through our busy and important lives.

Thank you for the playfullness, creativity and joy that is your

spirit living through us. 

Gracious God, help me to rejoice in the childlike nature that is

within me. 

Amen.

How is the Spirit working in our lives?

How is the Spirit working in our lives, where is the path leading?  The last couple of months have been incredibly rich with new learning, stretching my comfort zone, stretching the limits of time and tasks.  But with that has comes some really wonderful new knowing, much of which I am still searching for language for. 

The Spirit is always working in our lives, sometimes in ways that we know and can name, other times it is a slow gradual, shifting. 

For years one of my favorite Lenten meditation books is one written by Martin L. Smith, "A Season for the Spirit".  As is God's way with me so often, I picked it up the other day and it immediately started to speak to me.  Lent is a time of reflection and refinement, a time of letting go and renewing.  This can only be done deeply when we are honest about where we are in our lives of faith, where we are in the lives we lead and where God is in all that. 

"The Spirit can help me today to understand a little better the interplay of Yes and No in my life.  There is a self within me that says No to hope, No to myself, No to others, No to opportunities, the self that allows everything to take on the darkness and rigidity of that cave inside where life seems frustrating and hurtful." 

There are times when we meet people and as their story unfolds a resilience,a sense of spirit is obvious.  As parents most of us want so much to make sure our children are happy, well and supported.  We wish for them love, joy and peace.  Yet, there are times that as human beings life unfolds the way it does.  People lose their jobs, money becomes sparse and the stress on a family is huge.  Marriage and relationships are challenging and sometimes even with the best intentions, prayer and hard work, people part ways.  Tragedy happens in some families, death, addiction, imprisonment all cause pain, loss and fear. 

Each of us know people that fall into any of these catagories, each of us can identify with a life described here.  Regardless of the experience that has formed us, we each must find those places in ourselves that cause us to say NO to the life that God is calling us to.  Some of the strongest most resilient people I have met or admire came from very challenging circumstances. 

"Can I also hear within myself the voice which pronounces a real Yes to God and to the life in which I meet God?  Can I hear a Yes from within which trusts and believes, which hopes and asks, which reaches and strives, which accepts and recieves?  Can I hear within myself a  Yes  which trusts the love of God and accepts our extream vulnerability at the same time without pretence?" 

It is truly looking back on the experiences in my life that I know how deeply I have been formed by those times that were so painful.  Finding our way through life and the decisions we make can be a maze, a place where we hit walls, or feel trapped with no way to get out.  Maybe we have times when we feel abandon or mislead.  I have been blessed in my life, I know the love of my family and friends.  Many of the lessons I had to learn were ones I was warned about, things I was taught that either never registered or I thought I knew better.  God alone knows us, God alone knows those places within us that long for love.  God is always there even when we think not, God will be that voice when we can hear no other, God is with us in the maze of life, and God longs for us to say Yes. 

"Can I hear a Yes from within myself which is deep because it is an acceptance of a way of love which works through our vulnerability? "

The quotes today are all from "A Season for the Spirit", Martin Smith.  In closing today, I am aware of the blessing of God, of time and those times in my life that have formed me so profoundly. I am reminded of my faith, my strengh and desire for a very intentional Yes to God. 

"Breath of God in me, God has said Yes to me by giving you to me as my helper and source of the new life I want.  The faith you are giving me will help my Yes to life gradually to sound stronger than the NO of my mistrust.  The hope you are stirring in me will help my Yes overcome my timitdity.  The love with which you are impregnating me will melt the barriers behind which I have been taught to live and help me say Yes to myself, to others and the God in whom we all live and move and have our being.  Amen" 
Martin Smith

How can the sacred shape us?

What do we think about the idea that the sacred must sometimes change to shape us?  What is it like to meet God outside of our comfort zones, outside the norms we were brought up with?

In the early years of the church Lent was a time when those that were not baptized spent years preparing for this sacrament.  Education about the creeds, the catechism, history of the church, and the doctrine of our faith were central to preparation.  Personal prayer, reflection and preparation of body, mind and spirit was the foundation.

This is also true today in many ways, but it looks very different.  When Jesus was baptized, the sky opened and God proclaimed that Jesus was his son, that he was prouder of him than we can imagine and loved him to the moon and back.  Ok, those aren't God's words exactly, but I believe them to be true.  God loves us with this same overwhelming power.

"Still, Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis", is a book written by Lauren f. Winner.  In it is a very interesting story about the poet Anne Sexton, an award winning poet. We hear about her faith.   Most of her life she struggled with depression and other metal health issues.

"Once, when she was in a mental hospital, a Catholic priest came to visit her.  'Well,' she said to him, 'I've lost it all.'  The priest sat in her room and read her own poems aloud to her and she said, 'Look, I'm not sure I believe in God, anyway,' and he said, 'Your typewriter is your altar.' Sexton said, 'I can't go to church. I can't pray.' The priest said, 'Your poems are your prayers.'  Later she said she'd like him to baptize her, and then she'd like to take Communion.  He replied that she'd have to study the faith first, the councils, the creeds.  'I can't do that, Father Dunn....It would ruin....my thinking: I'd want Him to be my God, anyway.  I don' want to be taught about Him; I want to make Him up."  When he left her room, she asked him to pray for her. 'No," he replied, 'You pray for me."

The idea of her typewriter being her altar, her poems being her prayers is one that really resonates with me.  We each have places that we are able to be in touch with God, places and ways that we are able to pray. Being in relationship with God in ways that are intimate and sacred is a very personal thing.  What is your altar?  What do your prayers look like?

The idea of "making God up", is not the way I experience the journey, but I do believe that God is far greater than our human mind can fathom.  Each of us have stories and experiences that affirm for us the existence of a power greater than ourselves.  As Episcopalians we are called to look through the lens of scripture, tradition and reason to make meaning of our lives with God.  This allows us to enter into the life of the sacred in ways that challenge and transform us.

I was very touched by the Priest in this story.  I would like to have him visit me as the journey unfolds.  What do you hear?  Why was he asking for her prayers?

The Catechism tells us the "The sacraments are outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace, given by Christ as sure and certain means by which we receive that grace."  BCP, 857

We are also told that: "Grace is God's favor towards us, unearned and undeserved; by grace God forgives our sins, enlightens our minds, stirs our hearts, and strengthens our wills."  BCP 858

Lent is a time of preparation and prayers. It is a time to remember who God is in our lives, to spend time and wonder what difference all this makes, and to walk the journey with Jesus as he shows us the way.

"O God of unchangeable power and eternal light:  Look favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred mystery; by the effectual working of your providence carry out in tranquillity the plan of salvation; let the whole world see and know that things which were cast down are being raised up, and things which had grown old are being made new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.
  BCP  291

Let Evening Come

Let Evening Come

Let the light of late afternoon shine through chinks in the barn, moving up the bales as the sun moves down. Let the cricket take up chafing as a woman takes up her needles and her yarn. Let evening come. Let dew collect on the hoe abandoned in long grass. Let the stars appear and the moon disclose her silver horn. Let the fox go back to its sandy den. Let the wind die down. Let the shed go black inside. Let evening come. To the bottle in the ditch, to the scoop in the oats, to air in the lung let evening come. Let it come, as it will, and don't be afraid. God does not leave us comfortless, so let evening come. Jane Kenyon

Wake up to what?

"Wake up to what, exactly? Wake up to what the world can be. A world truly at peace. And peace, from the Arch's point of view, is not the absence of war. What he seeks is a shift in the battleground-forsaking armed conflict for the longer and more ennobling struggle against complacency, against selfishness, against revenge, and other, darker aspects of human nature To follow him in this fight is to have your life turned upside down turning the world right side up. To follow him is to join that ongoing march, the journey of equality." Bono

 This is a quote from the forward of the book: Tutu authorized, Allister Sparks and Mpho Tutu. Archbishop Desmond Tutu is a modern day prophet. The twinkle in his eye, the playfulness in his voice are merely points of entry to the wisdom, strength and passion this man embodies.

 Bono the lead vocalist of the popular band U2 is very faithful and passionate. He speaks in the forward of this new book about the man he calls his boss, "The Arch." When asked why the poor, the marginalized, the needy are so important to him, he speaks of a "wake up call", a time when having spoken with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, he knew that it was his responsibility to listen and respond in ways that would continue to make the world a better place.

 The majority of us are not Bono, with his recourses, talent or public image. We will not have the chance to meet Archbishop Desmond Tutu, but we are each responsible. We can each pray and reflect on the ways we can be present to God, to ourselves and our loved ones today.

 "the longer and more ennobling struggle agains complacency, against selfishness, against revenge and other darker aspects of human nature."

 It is so easy to believe that we are just one person, or that we live in small towns, or that we have nothing to say. Yet, each one of us are connected in ways we can't even imagine. How is it that God could be able to use your gifts, your talents, or your passion? Complacency leads to emptiness, selfishness leads to loneliness, revenge leads to pain, anger and the cycle continues.

 Gracious God, thank you for all the blessings of this day. Thank you for food, clothing and shelter. Thank you for not abandoning us, when we abandon ourselves, thank you for not giving up on us, even when we want to or give up on ourselves. Gracious God, help us this day, to be open to the richness of spirit and grace that can only come from you. Help us to look outside ourselves so that we can be the instruments you so desperately need us to be. Amen