Lectio Divina

When he entered Jerusalem
the whole city was in turmoil, asking,
“Who is this?”
Matthew 21

The basis for the ethics
of the Sermon on the Mount
is not what works, but rather
who God is.
Stanley Hauerwas

Prayer

God

I have been shouting something true
without knowing what I mean

Hosanna

A word so old
it has worn smooth
on my lips

Hosanna
Salvation
Save Us Lord

But I don’t know
what kind of king
rides an animal like that

I am not sure
if I am in this crowd
or finally watching
from a doorway

God bless America
God bless America

I have grown weary
of all shouting

Certainty moves through a crowd
like a virus

It feels like faith
But I’m not sure what it is

My God is Mighty to Save
My God is Mighty to Save

Still
something
is alive and moving

So here I am
I’m cutting down a branch
from the nearest tree

Not because I understand
but because that word
still touches the deepest
ache in me

Come save me, God
Hosanna

I don’t know what I’m asking for
I don’t know who is listening
but I pray it aloud
anyway

Blessing

Dear Friend

May the image of Jesus
riding into the politically charged
streets of Jerusalem
on a donkey
do in us the quiet work
the gospel writers intended.

May the Spirit
breathe upon such an image,
and disrupt
our imaginations of
power, success, significance, and freedom.

May we ponder our faith in Christ
as a path that leads
to death on a cross.

May we someday be as bold as Paul
who confessed

I want to know Christ,
the power of his resurrection
and participation in his sufferings,
becoming like him in his death.

In the Name of Christ
Who is Faithful
to Complete the Work
God Began in Us

Amen

Lectio Divina

He said to me,
Mortal, can these bones live?

I answered,
O Lord God, you know.
Ezekiel 37

I wait for the Lord
my soul waits
and in his word I hope.
Psalm 130

To set the mind on the flesh is death
but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
Romans 8

When he had said this,
he cried with a loud voice,
Lazarus, come out!

The dead man came out,
his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth,
and his face wrapped in a cloth.
John 11

Prayer

God
Who Raised Lazarus
Who Met Martha in Grief
Who Calls Prophets to Valleys of Dead Bones

Here I am

Standing
in a field
I did not choose

Bones
I once called dreams
now scattered
bleached by the seasons

You ask
what I cannot answer

Can these bones live?

Lord
You know

I have learned
how to move on
how to stay busy
how to craft a narrative

But have I forgotten
hope?

So I wait

Even if
with the thinnest thread
of attention

Spirit of the Living God

This quiet refusal
to call decaying bones
as an end…

Oh may it become a prayer

I no longer seek spectacle
but I long to see
bone by bone
breath by breath
reconstruction of a life lived
near to you

In that space between
Prayer and calling
Just before you say his name
Lazarus

Here I am

Blessing

Dear Friend

The question is not yours to answer.
It is there as invitation to remain.

May you be found in the valley of death
where life begins anew.

May you hear the sound of God
on the move.

May you notice where hope has been harmed.
May you honor the wound.
May you seek the steadfast Christ.

In the Name of the One
Who Greets Us Along the Road

Lectio Divina

He replied,
“Whether he is a sinner or not,
I don’t know.
One thing I do know.
I was blind but now I see!”
John 9

North American Christians are conspicuous for going along with whatever the culture decides is charismatic, successful, influential — whatever gets things done, whatever can gather a crowd of followers — hardly noticing that these ways and means are at odds with the clearly marked way that Jesus walked and called us to follow. Why doesn’t anyone notice?
Eugene Peterson, Cir. 2007

Prayer

God Who Healed on the Sabbath

I live among
strong opinions.

Each day
someone names
my enemies for me.

Their voices are loud.

Lord,
deliver me
from the small satisfactions of outrage,
from the self pleasure of being right,
from the hunger to win,
from the restless need to speak beyond my knowing.

Grant me instead
the subversive way
of Jesus.

Everywhere he went,
healing followed.

Oh that
that might be
said of me.

Amen

Blessing

Dear Friend

May you take pause this morning
to listen.

Not to the noise of ambition and performance
as did the Pharisees in Jesus’ day.

But to the gentle invitation
to be still
to pay attention

Who might you bless this day?
What blessings surround you?

Our God is a good God
always up to something good.

May you be a witness.

Go in peace.
The Lord is with you.

In the Name of Christ,

Amen

Lectio Divina

Come let us go to the mountain of the LORD

He will teach us his ways
so that we may walk in his paths.

Nation will not take up sword against nation,
nor will they train for war anymore.

Come let us walk in the light of the LORD.
Isaiah 2

Prayer

God of the trembling earth
Draw near

As the morning greets us
with noise of headlines and commentaries,

Center us.
Ground us.

May stillness
be our path
in a violent world.

For families caught between the powers
For the displaced, the sleepless, the grieving
LORD, hear their prayers

Teach us to still yet hold
in quiet reverence
the smallest acts
of faithfulness.

May I be gentle towards my neighbor
May I greet the stranger with a smile

Dwell in us
God of Peace.

Amen

Blessing

Dear Friend

May the noise of each day
lead us toward confession,
not certainty.

May our souls be shaped
by the nearness of God.

May our small hidden kindness
towards neighbor
be stronger than fear,
as we pray for Kingdom Come.

In the Name of the One
Who Opposes the Proud
and Lifts Up the Humble

Amen

Reflection

Eve and Adam reached for the fruit on the tree.

Sin is the human creature seeking control.
Refusing limitation.
Striving to be the divine.
In lieu of giving thanks for our humanity.

Reaching for power and control, we harm one another.
Corporations dehumanize their hires.
Nations build and deploy weapons of violence.

The antidote to sin, is not merely forgiveness.
It is awareness of human limitation.

That is why these forty days of returning to God
begin with remembrance.

You are dust.
To dust you will return.

We will all someday, die.

My parents visited me this week.
All my life, I have seen them age.
And they have seen me live now forty years.

We reflected on our lives.
The changes, the moves,
the will power, the convictions.

And still yet,
our self-deceptions.

We all think
we are in control
and so we reach.

But brother,
so little actually is.

Repentance is not only remorse over wrongdoing,
it is a surrender of what is not ours to have,
and an embrace of what is.

Come let us return to the LORD.

Lectio Divina

Now the LORD God had planted a garden in the East.
Genesis 2

You have made us for yourself, O LORD.
And our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.
Augustine

Prayer

LORD

What I have reached for
I give back to you.

For what I presently have
I give thanks.

Amen

Blessing

Dear Friend

May you catch yourself reaching for control.
May you instead, raise your hands in worship for what already is.

May you not see each moment as something to manipulate,
but a mystery to contemplate.

Go in peace.
Ponder the gift of every breath.

In the Name of the One
Who Breathed Life Into Dust

Amen

Lectio Divina

Search me, O God,
and know my anxious heart.
Lead me in the way everlasting.
Psalm 139

Where your treasure is
there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6

Reflection

We were taught to fear the breaking of rules.

Religion was loud around behavior.

Guilt, burden, comparison,
and a performative faith were its outcomes.

But sin is not mere transgression.
It is the bending of love.

The heart turns inward.
Imperceptible. Arranging the world
so it feels secure, admired, needed.

Sin is not always a rebellion.
It’s often self-protection.

We don’t wake up wanting to harm others.
We wake up wanting to matter.

Somewhere in that wanting,
the center shifts.

Confession is not condemnation.
It is honesty, awareness of that bend.

Grace is the gentle, patient straightening.

Prayer

God who sees without flinching,

I confess the quiet bend
the subtle rearranging

how I place self at center
how I seek to be necessary
how I measure worth in what can be counted by men.

LORD

What fear has taught me to clench,
help me to loosen.

I am returning to you.

Blessing

Dear Friend

May you begin the lenten journey
with a confession of sin that
doesn’t seek religious approval,
but congruence.

May you do the slow and faithful work
of searching the heart
for its self deceptions
and underlying fears.

May your confession lead you
to a God who not only forgives
but creates beauty
from what was once bent.

Notice the tension
in your body, mind, and soul.

Allow God’s grace upon grace
to meet you there.

In the Name of the One
who makes all things new.

Amen

Lectio Divina

In the wilderness,
you saw
how the Lord your God
carried you,
as a father carries his son.
Deuteronomy 1

This is my song of praise to you
For who you are and all that you do
Brian Doerksen

Prayer

I threw my daughter in the sky
She fell into loving embrace
Belly laughter filled the air

And God,
I remembered

the first time
I was handed
that metaphor
of the Divine as
paternal affection

Selah

I think of my own father
his stoic hands
and quiet provision

I think of Tim Taylor
his love loud
and boisterous

I think of Uncle Phil
his arms wide enough
to absorb shame
and make it small

Somewhere between
sitcom tenderness
and immigrant restraint

I begin
to see you

The laughter of heaven
loud, unashamed

A father
who does not flinch
when his children
rise high
or come crashing down

Selah

Oh how I need you, God

You hear
what I do not say

You sit with
what I cannot carry

What hope
to be loved
as I am

What gift
to reflect
who you are

Blessing

Dear Friend

What sustained Jesus
through the Gethsemane night
was not determinism
but affection.

If you are tired,
consider stillness.

May the affirmation
of a loving God
give clarity for the day.

May you be renewed
by the embrace of God.

In the Name of the One
Who taught us to
address a holy God
as Abba.

Amen.

Lectio Divina

You’re not that angry about the drawer in the kitchen.
The drawer simply gave you an outlet
for all the grief and pain sitting right below
the surface of your life.
Rob Bell

Cast all your anxiety on him
because he cares for you.
Be alert and of sober mind.
Your enemy the devil prowls around
like a roaring lion looking
for someone to devour.
Resist him.
1 Peter 5

If I give all I possess to the poor,
but do not have love,
I gain nothing.
1 Corinthians 13

Prayer

God of Peace

When my voice rises
with people I love,
I know.

I’ve gone too long
without stillness.

Smoke rises from
grief unexamined.

LORD,

Shine your light on me
like the patient dawn.

Keep me from
false strength,
that calcifies
into unseen
resentments.

May I be
a block of ice, slowly
thawing out
in your nearness.

Blessing

Dear Friend

May you hear the invitation
to bring your true self
into the sacred ground
of solitude and communion.

May you honor the ones you love,
by being still with the One
whose Name is Love.

May you not give the devil a foothold
by serving Christ, without first being near.

May you abide, and bear much fruit.

In the Name of the One
Who is Faithful to Complete
the Work He Began in You.

Amen.

Lectio Divina

Rejoice always, pray continually,
give thanks in all circumstances;
for this is God’s will for you
in Christ Jesus
1 Thessalonians 5

You must not ever stop being whimsical.
And you must not, ever, give anyone else
the responsibility for your life.
Mary Oliver

You mustn’t wish for another life.
You mustn’t want to be somebody else.
What you must do is this:
Rejoice evermore.
Pray without ceasing.
In everything give thanks.
I am not all the way capable of so much,
but those are the right instructions.
Wendell Berry

Prayer

God of Life

I think
these apps
conspire
to keep me
in a state of
shock
and offense.

My attention
enhances corporate wealth,
and diminishes my soul.

I am entertained.
I am enraged.

I am entertained.
I am enraged.

I am entertained.
I am enraged.

All
throughout,
every
single
day.

Politicians I dislike?
They are vilified.

My own limited insights?
They are fossilized.

What is happening to my soul?

It’s as though I am shrinking
into an adolescent self,
unable to hold tension,
unable to synthesize,
unable to comprehend beyond
two dimensional planes.

I am right.
They are wrong.
This is the doctrine of algorithm.

Selah

You
O Christ

Before you rose from the dead
You rose before the sunrise
to be alone
to be centered
to be one with Father and Spirit
to then live in the dance of union

Selah

O God
who searches hearts

Expose every screen
that causes my soul
to wither.

May I be transformed.

May I not conform
to the patterns of
a Zuckerbergian world.

May I see what you see
May I love whom you love
May I pray without ceasing

May I resist
looking for hope
without first
knowing its source.

Selah

O Crucified God

Let not my imagination of kingdom
be flattened to geopolitics or fiat currencies.

May I be in and yet not of
such worlds.

Teach me to follow Jesus.

The one who spoke truth
without rage, and trusted
the Father in death
and taxes.

May I give to you
all that belongs to you.

Amen

Invitation to Discipleship

Dear Friend

Good Morning.
The Lord be with you.

This week
put down your phone
more than you might think to do.

Give to God
your attention
undivided, five minutes at a time
each morning and afternoon.

Let your nervous system
feel the good news:
God is still up to something good.
God dwells within our broken lives.

Go in peace.
Go in union with God.
Rejoice. Pray. Give Thanks.

In the Name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
Amen

Lectio Divina

Let your gentleness be evident to all.
Philippians 4

Violence is what happens
when we refuse to live in tension.
Parker Palmer

Prayer

God Who Walked
with Fishermen and Tax Collectors
with Pharisees and Zealots

In a world
of spectacle
and tribes

May I choose wisdom
over a side

When banners are raised
and I am pressed to the binary

May I choose
the narrow path
of attention

When the room gets loud, keep
my voice low
my hands open
my heart near

May I be gentle
as you are

Amen

Blessing

Dear Friend

I hope you are staying warm this morning.
Receive these words as an invitation…

May you be strong enough
to be gentle.

May your presence
create a little quiet
where you stand.

May you know the God
who walks slowly
with those
of differing class
and politics.

May you see
the image of God
in the face of your enemy.

May you love
generously
without expectation
of return.

May you be at peace
without the last word.

In the Name of the One
who invites us to ponder
the absence of reward
when we love only those
who love us in return,

Amen

Listen

I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers.

First, I must confess that over the past few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.

While Mr. Boutwell is a much more gentle person than Mr. Connor, they are both segregationists, dedicated to maintenance of the status quo. I have hope that Mr. Boutwell will be reasonable enough to see the futility of massive resistance to desegregation. But he will not see this without pressure from devotees of civil rights. My friends, I must say to you that we have not made a single gain in civil rights without determined legal and nonviolent pressure. Lamentably, it is an historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture; but, as Reinhold Niebuhr has reminded us, groups tend to be more immoral than individuals.

When I was suddenly catapulted into the leadership of the bus protest in Montgomery, Alabama, a few years ago, I felt we would be supported by the white church. I felt that the white ministers, priests and rabbis of the South would be among our strongest allies. Instead, some have been outright opponents, refusing to understand the freedom movement and misrepresenting its leaders; all too many others have been more cautious than courageous and have remained silent behind the anesthetizing security of stained glass windows.

Never before have I written so long a letter. I'm afraid it is much too long to take your precious time. I can assure you that it would have been much shorter if I had been writing from a comfortable desk, but what else can one do when he is alone in a narrow jail cell, other than write long letters, think long thoughts and pray long prayers?

Martin Luther King Jr.
Excerpts from Letter from a Birmingham Jail

King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter… We want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.

Daniel 3

Pray

LORD

The moral gravity
of Pastor Martin
unsettles me.

His sorrow
handwritten, poured out
from a prison cell
invites my confession.

I have been
the moderate
white clergyman.

I have used intellect to explain
what the heart hesitates to carry.

Order can feel like peace.
Distance can feel like wisdom.

LORD

Teach me
a contemplation
that does not float above the world
but stands barefoot in it.

May I not settle
for a negating absence of conflict
but embrace the necessary tension
that bends the winding road
towards justice.

Amen

Abide

Dear Friend

May you pause on this holy day.

May you remember those who practiced non-violence with their bodies, interrupting the rhythms of unjust economies, opening schoolhouse doors, resisting laws that told children they were less than beloved.

Now turn gently
towards your own place in the world.

Notice the ground beneath your feet,
the comforts that hold you
the borders, seen and unseen,
that shape your days.

Listen for God’s invitation
rising from within
your city
your workplace
your nation-state.

May your life
tend what is good
make room for justice
and remain attentive
to the quiet cries
that ask for mercy.

Stay here awhile.

In the Name of the Risen Christ
who speaks to us on the Damascus Road
and calls us to a deeper life

Amen

Listen

Truly this man was God’s son
Mark 15:39

Here is the world.
Beautiful and terrible things will happen.
Do not be afraid.
Frederick Buechner

Pray

Lord
you who trade
beauty for ashes

Let not my anger
burn down the field
where wonder grows

You were a Jew
under Greco-Roman rule
tied to a wooden beam
killed by the state
on a Friday afternoon

And it was the guard
spear in hand
Caesar on his chest
who whispered aloud
what the temple could not:
Son of God

How
does mercy
outlive
the machinery
of cruelty?

Oh God, my God
God of the torn veil

You know the weight
I carry in my chest
the hard grain
of my resentments

Meet me there

As I honor my grief
Lord, pour out
your Holy Spirit
until I am softened
to the shape of Christ.

Let your Kingdom come.

Amen

Abide

Dear Friend

This world can be
a narrow room
where power decides
who gets to breathe

Yet Christ stands
in the dust
weeping
refusing to turn away

May you hear his grief
moving through the noise
of our streets

May you hear his intercession
on the cross

May you join him
May you be the salt of the world

In the Name of the One
who told us to take courage

Amen

Listen

The LORD, your God, is in your midst…
he will rejoice over you with gladness,
he will renew you in his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing.
Zephaniah 3

I’m a self-made millionaire…
Tupac

Pray

LORD.

I would like
to go for a walk
with the boy
who took absence,
and filled its space
with accomplishment.

I hear him
silently going hoarse
performing
his faith
his friendships
his fatherlessness.

I would like
to be quiet
beside him,
walking for miles
and miles and miles
through troubled waters
and open fields.

All his success
all his survival
a mirror
of ache
underneath.

He wouldn’t listen
to what I say,
too self-made,
too guarded to hear.

But perhaps
one day
he would come to know
and cherish
presence as gift.

And perhaps
one day
he would feel
as though he were enough.

Abide

Dear Friend

May you hear the good news:
Your accomplishments do not alter divine joy,
God rejoices over you.

May you have the courage to be still
and receive, unmerited grace
unconditioned by performance.

May your drive
to fix the world
and crush what lies before you
be baptized and carried
to a country of grace.

May you smile when
that little boy shows up
again and again. Tell him
you are beloved.

In the Name of the One
who spoke to Nicodemus
of being born from above

Amen

Lectio Divina

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Isaiah 9

Under the image of the Trinity we discover that we do not know God by defining him but by being loved by him and loving in return.
Eugene Peterson

Prayer

God of Nearness
You come to us
not in spectacle
but in skin and breath,
in the weight of a child

I remember holding Zoe
for the first time.

Her life and body
settling into my arms…

My entire world
took pause,
everything else
would wait.

No theology was needed
No sermon, no lecture,
No discourse on spirituality

Only my attention,
My love for her
beginning to take form

Her trust, her self
given, as gift
and holy task

So you arrive,
O Christ,
your Glory in
our feeble arms

Asking
to be received
to be hallowed
to be loved

Teach me again
to make room for what is small
to recognize glory
wrapped in flesh.

May my life be a cradle
May my weakness be a manger
Lord, make my love real

Blessing

Dear Sister
Dear Brother

Merry, Merry Christmas

May Christ be born anew
this day, and everyday, in you

May you cherish him
and exalt his holy Name

May you know his love
and may you offer him, yours
in the way Mary and Joseph
held their boy, Jesus

See him make all things new

In the Name of God
Who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
God known only by love

Amen

Lectio Divina

The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.
Isaiah 7

Joseph had in mind to divorce her quietly.
Matthew 1

Prayer

LORD,

As I wait.
As I long.

Help me see,
that what I see,
is never all
there is to see.

Even Joseph
a righteous man
could not grasp
the child
who ruined
his own dreams

Blessing

Dear Friend,

Christmas is approaching.

May you take time to ponder the mystery.
God is near. God is with us.
Even in the shadows of Herod.
Even in the scandal of our lives.

Grace abounds,
in disruptive incarnation.

May you wonder anew: Immanuel.

In the Name of the One
Whose Thoughts are Not our Thoughts

Amen

Lectio Divina

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
and the ears of the deaf unstopped.
Isaiah 35

The man who has many answers
is often found
in the theaters of information
where he offers, graciously,
his deep findings.

While the man who has only questions,
to comfort himself, makes music.
Mary Oliver

Prayer

Most my life, I tried to be
the man, with
certainty,
career,
achievement.

The self-sufficient
American man was
my given imagination
of immigrant success.

Well, mom,
I have done
just that.

No wonder why
it requires
so much work
to feel my soul
hunger for God.

I am not Isaiah,
I am the blind man.

LORD
open my eyes
to the beauty
inside my unspoken groaning

My LORD, My God
I wait for you.

Blessing

Dear Friend

May this Advent find you
in the quiet womb of longing,
knowing that God is birthing
new life, new joy, new wisdom,
in and through the very
season you find yourself in.

May you seek not to be the man
with answers and judgments,
but a child, riding her bike
in trust and gladness.

In the Name of the One
Who is Worthy of Our Worship

Amen

Lectio Divina

A shoot shall come from the stump of Jesse
and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
The spirit of the LORD shall rest on him…
His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD.
Isaiah 11

Sermon

Some things must be cut down
before new life can emerge.

Not despite the stump,
but from it.

When what was once paramount
comes to an end,
there is grief, and yet
a new beginning.

The Bible is a story of God
arriving again and again
in the ruins,
bringing shalom, beauty, justice.

May you have courage
to wait for the shoot
quietly growing from the roots.

Prayer

LORD of stumps and shoots

You are the gardener of impossible places
tending what has been written off
bringing life through what once was broken open

In the cold hush of Advent
teach me to welcome
the slow, strange growth of your Spirit.

If I must be cut back,
cut me kindly.

But breathe on what remains.

I don’t want to be louder.
I don’t want to be the center.
But I so want to be rooted.

Grow your Kingdom
from the naked ground
of my very life.

Blessing

Dear Friend

What God does in you as you wait
is as beautiful
as what you are waiting for.

May your waiting
be the space
where God is found.

In the Name of the One
Who Entered Our Darkness

Amen

Lectio Divina

My soul thirsts for God
for the the Living God
Psalm 42

We saw his star in the East
and have come to worship.
Matthew 2

Prayer

God of Advent

the Koreans call it han.
the Hebrews have a book Lamentations.

the sorrow that lingers
the ache of injustice
the generational wound
that refuses to close

We live in a world
that trades on attention
every bright screen
keeping me
from listening deep

But the ache
is the star
that the Magi saw

LORD
during these Advent days,
may I be
still enough
quiet enough
to listen
and to seek
the One
who was anointed
to set the oppressed free.

Blessing

Dear Friend

Advent begins
when we create space
for the word Savior
to move beyond
sentimental religious phraseology
and arrive at the place
where our most honest selves
align with all the world’s longing for Christ.

May you confess your need for Jesus.
May we confess together.

Whether we identify with exilic Israel
or with the children of Babylon,
feasting while the prophets weep,
may we hunger for God
and Kingdom Come.

May all that feels unresolved
be an anchor to pray
and seek the Living God.

In the Name of the One
Who Hears Our Groaning Without Words

Amen

Lectio Divina

You knit me in my mother’s womb.
Psalm 139

The body remembers what the mind tries to forget.
Unknown

Prayer

God who breathes
life into dust

Remind me
as I rise
this early morning

My body
is not a project to fix
but the dwelling place
of Holy Spirit

Teach me
to listen deep
for the quiet wisdom
beneath my skin

the wounds that still protect
the muscles that remember
all that I have carried

And as I age,
may I take notice

Every change of skin and bone
they testify, day by day
of a steadfast
patient love

Blessing

Dear Friend

May you pause and consider. How your breath rises and falls. How your lungs expand and contract. May every inhale be a pathway towards grace. May every exhale be a letting go of what is not yours to carry. Your breath is a prayer. Your body is the sacred place where divinity and humanity dance.

In the Name of the One Who Took on Flesh
Amen

Lectio Divina

When I work in the particulars, I develop a reverence for what is actually there instead of a contempt for what is not, inadequacies that seduce me into a covetousness for someplace else.
Pastor Eugene H. Peterson

I have chosen the way of faithfulness;
I have set my heart on your laws.
Psalm 119

Prayer

Just this.
Just this.
Just this.

This very breath.
This very day.
This still moment.

Behold, your mother.
Behold, your son.
Behold, your God.

Though my mind should wander.
Thinking holiness is a far off country.
Give me a reverence for what is actually here.

May I not despise
the ground beneath my feet.
May I not hurry past
the grace that draws near.

May I say in awe,
the whole Earth is filled
with your glory, Lord.

Blessing

Dear Friend

May you consider that Benedictine vow of stability. May the ease of the thumb scrolling dopamine hit not numb your vision for seeking God and serving neighbor within the ordinariness of each day. Transformation happens as we are rooted. Not chasing novelty, but deepening our practice of presence day by day.

May you see within the particulars of your life, the nearness of the divine.

In the Name of the One
Who Became Flesh and Dwelled With Us

Amen