God of the Seasons . . .

 

O God of all seasons and senses, grant us the sense
of your timing                                                                  
to submit gracefully and rejoice quietly in the turn of the seasons.
In this season of short days and long nights,
of grey and white and cold,
teach us the lessons of endings;
children growing, friends leaving, loved ones dying,
grieving over,
grudges over,
blaming over,
excuses over.

O God, grant us a sense of your timing.
In this season of short days and long nights,
of grey and white and cold,
teach us the lessons of beginnings;
that such waitings and endings may be the starting place,
a planting of seeds which bring to birth what is ready to be born—
something right and just and different,
a new song, a deeper relationship, a fuller love—
in the fullness of your time.
O God, grant us the sense of your timing.
From Guerrillas of Grace by Ted Loder

An Advent Practice . . .

 Advent ~ by Lucy Rose Johns

“We are waiting for these aches and pains to be healed. 

We are waiting for the hunger within to be satisfied. 

We are waiting for love to touch us.
We are waiting to be understood and really listed to. 

We are waiting for decisions to be easy. 

We are waiting to be inspired to love unlovable people. 

We are waiting for financial cares to be resolved.
We are waiting for serenity to accept the things we cannot change. 

We are waiting for courage to change the things we can. 

We are waiting for wisdom to know the difference. We are waiting to be appreciated.
We are waiting for justice. 

We are waiting for the answers. 

We are waiting for the dawn of a new day. 

We are waiting for things to get easier. 

We are waiting for a time of rest, peace, quiet.

We are waiting for patience. 

We are waiting and waiting. 

We are waiting in joyful hope for the coming of our God!”

December 3, 2023: Ma. Marilou S. Ibita Preaches for the First Sunday of ...

David Brooks | How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and...

Living Gratitude . . .

 

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos into order, confusion into clarity.... It turns problems into gifts, failures into success, the unexpected into perfect timing, and mistakes into important events. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today and creates a vision for tomorrow.

Melody Beattie

https://melodybeattie.com/

A Thanksgiving story . . .

 

Have you ever been robbed or cheated out of something that belongs to you?  One day a secretary in a large office building took a coffee break.  She stopped at a vending machine, selected a small bag of chocolate chip cookies, plopped them on a table and sat down to sip coffee while browsing the newspaper.  When she reached out and took a cookie from the package, to her astonishment, a man sitting across the table also reached out and took one.  She was a little upset by this, but didn't say anything.  After all, it was only one cookie. 

A few minutes later she took another one.  Again, her table companion did the same.  Now she was getting bent out of shape. Soon there was only one cookie left.  He broke it, took half for himself and left the other half for her.  Then he smiled, rose from the table and walked away. 

Now she was really mad!  How could he dare help himself to her cookies?  She had no problem sharing, but he wasn't polite enough to ask and he didn't even say, "Thank you."  His nerve and disrespect were insulting.  That's what really hurt.  She stood up, grabbed the newspaper and then saw her bag of cookies.  It had been hidden out of sight by the newspaper.  All this time, she had been helping herself to his small bag of cookies.  She had robbed, cheated and disrespected him!  

Source/author unknown  

November 26, 2023: Carol Zinn, SSJ Preaches for the Solemnity of Christ ...

Our Sacred Connection with Earth: A Reflection by Carol Braun

A Blessing Prayer

 

 

+Breathing in: Generous God 

Breathing out: Thank you

Prayer:
Generous God, you have poured so much into our blessing cups.  You have offered us many graced moments filled with wonders of your goodness.  You have been bountiful in sharing your presence of un-conditional love with us.  You call us to bless others with our cup of life.  Stir up within us a desire to offer our gifts to those who need them.  We pray this in gratitude for your continued belief in us - for you are always ready to fill our cup with your generous love. In hope and trust we pray. Amen.

+ + +

Quiet Reflection:
• Reflect on some of the blessings in your life.
• Which one means the most to you?
• What helps you to be aware of the daily blessings in your life?
• How have you prayed with these blessings?
• Speak a prayer of thanksgiving in your heart for a blessing you have received this week.

+ + +

   A Blessing for Our World

• May the God of strength be with us; and may we be God’s strength to those in our world whose hands and hearts we hold.
• May the God of gentleness be with us; and may we be God’s tenderness to warm all who are hurt, alone, depressed, or in need of kindness.
• May the God of mercy be with us; and may we bring mercy, courage, and hope to those in our world who suffer from fear, lack of trust, or who have been hurt in any way.
• May the God of compassion be with us; and may we be God’s compassion to those who are weary, or in need of a listening heart.
 • May the God of patience be with us; may God’s patience be with us as we pray to stand with out-stretched arms, with an understanding heart - free of judgment -to receive those who are in need of our support.
• May the God of peace be with us; may God’s peace be with us as we pray for those in our world who are the least, the last, and the lost; and for those who are troubled, anxious, in doubt, and restless.  May God’s peace be a warm mantle of love to still their hearts.

 +Breathing in: Generous God  

Breathing out: Thank you

 

 

Thanksgiving Prayer

In the spirit of humility we give thanks for all that is. 
We thank the great spiritual beings who have shared their wisdom. 
We thank our ancestors who brought us to where we are now. 
We are grateful for the opportunity to walk this planet, 
to breathe the air, 
to taste the food, 
to experience sensations of a human body/mind, 
to share in this wonder that is life. 
We are grateful for the natural world that supports us, 
for the community of humankind that enables us to do many wondrous things. 
We are grateful that we are conscious, 
that as intelligent beings we can reflect upon the many gifts we have been given. ~ Tom Barrett 

A story to massage our spirits . . .

 

The Forever Tree

Once, a long, long time ago, a little tree was growing in the forest. As the little tree grew taller and stronger, she began to notice the wide expanse of sky stretching far above her head. She noticed the white clouds scudding across the sky, as if on some great journey.  She watched the birds wheeling overhead. The skies, the clouds, the birds in flight – they all seemed to speak of a land of forever.  The more she grew, the more she noticed these forever things, and the more she longed to live forever herself.  

One day, the forester happened to pass close by the little tree. He was a kindly old man, and he sensed that the little tree was not entirely happy. ‘What’s the matter, little tree?’ he asked. ‘What troubles your soul?’ The little tree hesitated, and then told the forester about the deep desire in the core of her being: ‘I would so much like to live forever.’ ‘Perhaps you shall,’ replied the forester. ‘Perhaps you shall.’

Some time passed, and once again the forester passed close by the little tree, now grown tall and strong.  ‘Do you still want to live forever?’ he asked the tree. ‘Oh, I do, I do,’ the tree replied fervently. ‘I think I can help, but first you must give me your permission to cut you down.’ The tree was aghast: ‘I wanted to live forever.  And now you say you are going to kill me?’ ‘I know,’ said the forester. ‘It sounds crazy.  But if you can trust me, I promise you that your deepest desire will be fulfilled.’

After much hard thought, the tree gave her consent. The forester came with his sharp-bladed axe.  The tree was felled. The sap of life streamed away and was lost in the forest floor. The tender wood was sliced into strips. The strips were planed and shaped and smothered in a suffocating layer of varnish. The tree screamed silently in her anguish, but there was no way back.  She surrendered herself to the hands of the violin-maker, all dreams of foreverness vanished in a haze of pain.

For many years, the violin lay idle. Sometimes, she remembered better days, when she was growing in the woods. What a bad bargain it had been, surrendering herself to the forester’s axe.  How could she have been so naive as to believe that this would enable her to live forever?
But the day came – the right and perfect moment – when the violin was gently lifted from her case and caressed once more by loving hands.  She held her breath in disbelief.  She quivered, as the bow tenderly crossed her breast. And the quivering turned into a pure sound that reminded her of how the wind had once rustled through her leaves, how the clouds had once scudded by on their way to forever, how the birds had wheeled overhead, shaping circled of eternity in the blue sky.

A pure sound.  Pure notes. The music of Forever. ‘My wood has turned into music!’ the tree gasped, deep inside herself. ‘The forester spoke the truth.’

And the music resounded, from listening heart to listening heart, down through all the ages until at last, when all the listening hearts had made their own journey home, it rolled through the gates of eternity, where the little tree became a Forever Tree.

                                                                         Story by Margaret Silf            

Ponderings:
• What are the desires deep down in the core of your being?
• How does the story make you feel?
• What is disturbing for you in the story?
• What is true for you in the story?

(questions adapted from Megan McKenna)      

November 19, 2023: Rosemary Johnston Preaches for the 33rd Sunday in Ord...

Befriending the Darkness!

 

 

God is the Friend of Silence
We Need to Find God,
God Cannot Be Found in Noise and Restlessness.

God Is the Friend of Silence.
See How Nature . . .
Trees, Flowers, Grass
Grow in Silence.
See the Stars, the Moon and Sun . . .
How They Move in Silence.

The More We Receive in Silent Prayer,
The More We Can Give in Our Active Life.
We Need Silence to Be Able to Touch Souls.
The Essential Thing Is Not What We Say,
But What God Says . . .
To us and Through us.

All Our Words Will Be Useless
Unless They Come from Within.
Words Which Do Not Give the Light of Christ . . .
Increase the Darkness.
-Blessed Mother Teresa

Gratitude

 

A seeker once went to the holy woman in the desert because life had become too chaotic and he yearned to have balance and order restored within him. The desert woman said to him, “Your life is chaotic because you have become dependent on change, on excitement, on variety. You want always to experience something new instead of finding what is new through the repetition of what seems old. If you would have balance and order within, do one small thing at the same time each day with gratitude in your heart and slowly the tattered fragments of your life will be bound together into a textured tapestry of beauty. It does not take great doses of hardship – only one small thing done every day at the same time with gratitude in your heart. One small thing every day, at the same time, with gratitude in your heart. One small thing, every day, same time, with gratitude. And that will be enough.” Ask yourself the question: How does the activity of my life keep me from practicing gratitude?

(Author Unknown)

A Song of Praise to our Autumn God

 

O God of Autumn loveliness, 

We thank you for the many colors of our lives.                            

We thank you for the rich hues of red, 

The promising hope of greens,                                         

The depth of the golds, and the well-worn browns.

 

We praise you for all of the life you have given us, 

The life we celebrate at this harvest                                

Time each year. Like the leaves of the trees, 

We ourselves have been blown around,                                        

Toasted in the sun, and whipped by rain and storms. 

Yet, we stand as a testament to life well lived.

 

Your trees, O God, remind us of our letting go, 

Our need to trust transformation                                      

So that new life can come. 

Yet, like them, we resist the tearing, wrenching, pulling, and tugging.

We cling earnestly to our color and our home!

 

Release us, God of the Autumn, and free us 

so that the wind of your Spirit can fling us

To the places we most need to go.  

Bury us deep in places where we will find warmth.   

Help us to find ourselves grounded in You.

 

As we look around in this harvest time, 

We celebrate the bounty all around us 

And deep within us.   

May we be forever grateful for the plentitude!   

May we be forever generous with all that is ours.  

May we be forever willing to give of ourselves!

 

And as we journey towards this winter time

Help us to always carry the spirit of springtime 

Deep within us as a sign of hope!   

We believe, O God of Transformation, 

That all of life is your belief and hope in us!   

Ready our hearts, steady our hearts

 That we can respond fully in faith and love!

(Author Unknown)

November 11, 2023: Paula Rush Preaches for the 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

November 5, 2023: Raynah Marise Braganza Passanha Preaches for the 31st ...