I love my morning retreat.
A bird chortles at the cat in his yard.
An oriole sips grape jelly.
A holy breath plays the leaves
to make a sacred song.
And somewhere
in the distance
people begin their work.
Soon I will join them in the day's labor
Please little morning retreat
come with me as I go.
I am always amazed how things I read seem to come together into a seamless message even though they are from very different sources. This morning I read in Luke:
What is the kingdom of God like? It is like a mustard seed which a man took and threw into his garden: it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air sheltered in its branches. Luke 13:18-19
I was taken with the thought that the man simply throws the seed into the garden. He does not plant it. He does not water it. He does not seem to cultivate it in anyway. And yet it grows and flourishes. Also, it does not simply grow to minister to humanity, it grows to be shelter for all of God's creatures. It is, itself, a created manifestation of God's love.
That alone gave me something to chew on. As I let those thought sit and brew I picked up another book. "Psalms of Praying" by Nan C. Merrill. (A GREAT book by the way.) After reading rendition of a psalm I looked through her preface for this tenth edition I read:
To pray is to be transformed. We become One in the Silence with pray-ers from every country who are scattering seeds of love and light into the chaos; thus, we blanket the world with aa web of peace.
We scatter seeds, we throw seeds out into the garden of creation by the very act of praying, meditating, interacting with the divine, however we name that divine. Could we in fact change the world by the very act of our prayers? Are they the tiny seeds of the mustard plant that will shelter all of creation in love?
Just something to ponder today.
And so...let us pray...........
Invited into the palace, she brought with her all the love and enthusiasm of a child. The world was new. Her joy was golden and shimmered to the delight of all who would see.
She fell in love with the king and he with her. They lingered together and touched one another and sighed. Days passed. Christmas, the time for giving arrived. She waited with anticipation to see what delight the king would give her.
Finally the anticipated moment came. The king took her up into his arms and offered her a ring of marriage, of union with himself. She gasped. How could she accept the highest treasure of union with her king? She brought nothing of such magnitude to give to him in exchange.
In fear, in confusion, in sadness she rejected the offer and ran away. In darkness, and alone, she labored to find what there was of value that she might create to give to the king. Others came and taunted her. She would never, could never be worthy. Still she struggled. She labored in hope of being worthy.
The king, saddened by her assumptions, sent messengers to remind her that he had already created her worthy. He had endowed her with all that he had ever hoped she would give him. He had created the magnificent flowers of the world that lasted but a day. Why would he have not also created her with such beauty and magnificence? It was her that brought him joy.
We too are wonderfully made. Why will we not also receive? Simply receive.
Every bird knows God's will for a wing
Falling becomes flying without thinking a thing
What's written on the heart, cannot help but sing.
Every bird knows God's will for a wing. (Peter Mayer)
I sit here wondering at all my failures. I question my abilities to do Spiritual Direction. My questions never seem to be the ones that take the other deeper. I question my ability to be a hospice chaplain. Is my hope for spiritual interaction driven by my own need? Or is my hope that the request for a chaplain is a hope for spiritual encouragement? Of course, then I must come back to what Spirituality is.
It is all too complicated for the head to comprehend and sort through. Instead, what is it that is written on my heart? What if I sing those words and not worry so much about the words others (or myself) think I SHOULD sing? The head grows weary thinking such questions.
You too?
Let's make a deal. Let's spread our wings and see what happens!
blessings one and all!
So I just can't hold it in any longer. I have GOT to rant a little. I am sick over the news that the monarch butterfly is on the endangered species list. I am so sorry little flying flower that we care so little for you.
But here is what makes me even sicker. I have felt this for years but as a pastor of a church have attempted to be polite and keep my discussions within the confines of the council meetings. I am no longer a pastor of a church so listen up! Here I go!
I am devastated that the church, the bride of Christ, the loud proclaimer of worshiping God the creator, doesn't give a snap about the monarch butterfly or any other creature that is dying. How can I say that? Simple. Look at the lawns of most churches. They are pristine. They have been sprayed with chemicals to kill the very "weeds" that pollinators live off of. Did you know that without milkweed we will have no monarch butterflies? I have heard people ask why we don't see the lightening bugs like we used to. Because people poison the ground in which they live.
If my daughter brought home a picture she had drawn, I proudly hung it on the refrigerator. I still have some of the things my now 38 year old daughter made as a child. If I had crumbled them up and carelessly tossed them in the garbage most people would have labeled that as a lack of love and caring for my child. And they would have been right.
But church, your Lord, the one you claim to love, has created a wondrous masterpiece for you. Each time you poison it, each time you add more black top or cut down another healthy tree, you show disregard for what your Creating God has given you. And you don't seem to care. Why? Why don't you care? Why do you insist on destroying lightening bugs, and monarch butterflies with poison?
I expect this behavior from businesses that only have dollars and cents on the brain. They make no claim of love for God, creation, or humanity.
But you church? Why? How dare you sing "This Is My Father's World" or "For the Beauty of the Earth?" How dare you?
There, I have said it.
Lord, hear my prayer.
“The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men
And so I am in Wisconsin for the big one week practicum for spiritual direction. The plans are all set. The schedules are all laid out and wham! COVID strikes again. One of the staff is no longer able to participate. They change the plans, they lay out new schedules and wham! Another Staff tests positive. And they groan. What is next?
We have a tornado warning, so off we trot to the basement and we sit and wait. Fortunately the warning faded off into history and we all returned to our places.
For now, the plans of the practicum continue, although largely altered. Many of the staff return home and opt to do their parts on zoom. The 13 participants, yes I am one, who are presently on site, seem to be willing to stick it out and stay. Wait, 13? That can't be good.
I came across this prayer by Father Thomas Keating downstairs by the desk. It seems to fit.
Fill me Lord with your glorious light.
A light that opens eyes and hearts
A light that cheers the soul
A light that dispels the darkness.
A light not for me to keep but
A light to give away.
A light that shines your love
on all.
"See to it then that the light inside you is not darkness." (Luke 11:35)
Darkness of self importance
Darkness of certainty
Darkness of pride
Fill me Lord with your glorious light
That the darkness within will be dispelled.
It would be so easy for me to become a recluse. I would in fact mirror my mother. Sit and knit or putz around the house all day. She used to say that she liked staying home because she loved her home. I get it. Or at least I do now.
The cry of my heart, since I can remember, has always been to draw closer to God. I long to unite with the creator of such a magnificent universe. I often attempt to convince God that such unity would certainly be better reached within the privacy of my home. God does not seem to agree.
Each call that the Spirit has been placed on my life has been one of public interaction. (sigh) I suppose for an introvert this is a call to sacrifice, albeit a meager one. Still, when I am willing, it is in the faces of those whom I encounter that I find the life giving light of God. It is in their smiling eyes that I am united with the eternal. It is within their joy that I am saved, made whole, completed.
Today in Luke I read:
So I say to you: 'Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; everyone who searches finds; everyone who knocks will have the door opened.'
But what if when the door opens, when we find what we have asked for, it does not look like what we expected? Does that mean that our prayers have not been answered?
Of course it doesn't. Of course it doesn't.
Thank you Lord for opened doors, even when what lies on the other side is not what I envisioned. For your vision, Eternal Spirit, is always clearer than mine.
Bruce and I went for a morning walk. Lots of work ahead of us today and supposed to get hot, so the morning walk seemed like a good idea. It is truly beautiful on the island in the morning. Birds, blue sky, white clouds, sparkling river, and of course shad flies. Lots and lots of shad flies. The hatch this year has been seemingly continuous.
These creatures actually fascinate me. They really are gracefully made. And they fly about in what seems to be a joyful celebration of life.
I read that Adults have a lifespan ranging from a few minutes to a few days. The average lifespan is only one or two days.
24 hours. That's all you get. 24 hours unless a bird catches you first. And so they celebrate. They celebrate because they have 24 hours to live and breathe. They celebrate because for 24 hours they will fly. They celebrate because they never seem alone but always within a community of fellow celebrants.
Today is our season to celebrate life. It may be only 24 hours more or it may be another 24+ years. But today we dance and fly as a newly hatched shad fly does.
Most people choose to complain about the shad flies. They do make a mess after all and they do begin to stink as they decompose. But don't most celebration end with a mess to be cleaned up?
I hope you celebrate the next 24 hours with the exuberance of a gracefully made freshly hatched shad fly.
Phew! It has been a long time since I have tried to sit quietly in Centering Prayer. So many distractions have pulled me away. This is not a statement of guilt but rather a statement of fact. Life is like that sometimes. It pulls at us.
Well, I tried to sit quietly this morning. I set my timer for the 20 minutes of Centering Prayer that I was used to. Ha! Ten minutes in I surrendered. The mind is so full of thoughts I could not shut it down but for a second or two. I must have checked the time two or three times in those ten minutes thinking it wasn't working.
I am not angry with myself. The Preacher in Ecclesiastes speaks of seasons. I look forward to returning to a season of contemplation and I will be patient as I become re-acclimated to silence. Much like a runner who has not run in awhile, it will take time. It is good to know that God waits patiently.
So for today here are some words of contemplation.
St Patrick
Let us be wary of what we bind unto our hearts this day. Amen
So often in the gospels we read that Jesus went off to pray alone. Luke, over and over again, refers to times when Jesus was praying alone. Have you ever wondered what Jesus prayed? Did he have a prayer list? Did he use prayers from the Sabbath gatherings? Maybe he used the psalms. Or did he just open his heart and pray all that was there? Maybe he simply listened.
All options seem possible. But then I remembered the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray and he said pray like this. This is where we get the Lord's prayer of course. Many of us can recite it so fast our brains never touch the words and certainly not our hearts.
But what was Jesus praying. We know the words approved by King James. What, I wonder, did the original Aramaic sound like?
Let me tempt you with this from: https://readsuzette.com/lords-prayer-original-aramaic/. King James line then a possible translation from the Aramaic. Below is another link that gives us more.
Our Father who art in heaven:
O Birther! Father-Mother of the Cosmos, you create all that moves in light.
Hallowed be thy name
Focus your light within us — make it useful: as the rays of a beacon show the way.
Thy kingdom come
Unite our “I can” to yours, so that we walk as kings and queens with every creature.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven
Create in me a divine cooperation — from many selves, one voice, one action.
Give us this day our daily bread
Grant what we need each day in bread and insight.
And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors
Forgive our hidden past, the secret shames, as we consistently forgive what others hide.
And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil
Deceived neither by the outer nor the inner — free us to walk your path with joy.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
From you is born all ruling will, the power and life to do, the song that beautifies all from age to age it renews. Amen.
http://www.songofhome.com/Klotz.htm
May our prayers be alive and not simply rote. Amen.
The Butterfly
My heart cries out for our churches. The institutions they have become are much like this butterflies cocoon. A womb to nurture the transformation of the Spirit, to protect the evolving spirituality of God's people, but a now a wooing deathtrap. If the butterfly remained in the cocoon that is exactly what it would become, a deathtrap.
Some say the church is dead. Perhaps they are not far from wrong. But so was Jairus' daughter. And Luke writes: "But taking her by the hand himself [Jesus] spoke to her, 'Child, get up.' And her spirit returned and she got up at that very moment." (Luke 8: 54)
I can't imagine that she was ever the same again.
Church, takes Christ's hand and receive your spirit again. You shall not crawl but fly.
Luke 7: 44-50
Because of her love Jesus declares the forgiveness of her sins. Because of her faith, Jesus tells her she is saved--or made whole. It was not the cross, for it had not yet occurred. Was Jesus pointing to the strength, the hope, the spirit within her that already existed?
We may not be able to save ourselves because it is in relationship we are made whole. It is in relationship we are forgiven. It is in relationship we exercise faith. And yet it is in the releasing of our own spirit---the setting it free to soar to its calling--that we receive these treasures in relationship.
I wonder if my own inability to allow my spirit freedom (what that means I am not certain) that I do not receive all that is offered to me? And yet I still am at peace that while I can't always receive, it is in fact still there!
Thank you God!