Lectio Divina

Whoever drinks this water will be thirsty again
but whoever drinks the water I give
will never thirst.
John 4

Adam and his wife were both naked,
and they felt no shame.
Genesis 2

Prayer

God of Love

In the beginning
In your garden

There was no religion
Only presence

Before we learned to hide
We were fully here

This morning, I come
without
the better version of myself

Quiet
the explaining
the proving
the performing
noise

Show me
the quiet joy
of being known
without fear

Oh living water
be the spring
welling up in me

Blessing

Dear Friend

May you stand before God today
with nothing to offer
but yourself.

May you discover
the original gift of humanity
in paradise:

to be seen
without shame.

May your labors be born
of something greater than fear.

In the Name of Christ
Who Told Stories of Unmerited Love

Amen

Lectio Divina

Leaders are victimized by victimization.

Edwin Friedman

Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!”

Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.”

Mark 1

Prayer

God of the quiet place

Keep me from becoming
every voice that calls my name

Before I hear of
where I am needed
where I am wanted
where I ought to be instead

Remind me of why
I am here

To enjoy
To glorify
Within my limitations

Blessing

Dear Friend

Not every anxious voice in your life
is yours to carry.

May you be centered
in the particular call
of this season in your life.

May you have the courage
to remain within it.

Be strong and courageous
to let your yes be yes
to let your no be no

In the Name of Christ
Who Preached in Galilee

Amen

Lectio Divina

What we need is here.

Wendell Berry

Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. 

If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor, having taken into account the number of people there are…

Then take the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the house… on that night, I will pass through Egypt.

Exodus 12

Prayer

God of Deliverance
God of Enough

Even as you rescue us from Pharaoh
You call us to care for our neighbor

Teach us to recognize
when enough for us
might also be enough for another

Your salvation was
never ours alone

Make us participants
in the healing of your world

Amen

Blessing

Dear Friend

Pharaoh’s economy is one of
ambition, anxiety, accumulation,
production, and scarcity

God’s economy begins
with paying attention
to the needs of those around us

You have been given enough
You have been given to one another

May you go into this day
full of God’s grace
sharing what you’ve received
caring for your neighbor

May the world be made beautiful
because you are being saved

In the Name of the One
Who came to set captives free

Amen

Lectio Divina

Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead.
You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am.
Don’t run from suffering; embrace it.
Follow me and I’ll show you how.
Self-help is no help at all.
Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self.
Mark 8, Eugene Peterson’s Translation

The original meaning of the word theology was union with God in prayer. Today theology has become one academic discipline among many others.
Henri Nouwen

I’d been manipulated one time too many by someone telling me God’s will for me and disappointed one time too many by God not telling me his will for me, so I just stopped crediting him, stopped listening for him.

But if Scripture is about anything, it’s about moment by moment reliance on the Spirit of God, trusting that every good and perfect gift is from him, that he is with us in suffering, that his Spirit guides and comforts us.
Mandy Smith

Prayer

Jesus

We’ve made a mess

Flags
Fortunes
Platforms
Wars

All in your name

Pastors build ladders
with the wood of your cross

ascending religious careers
claiming to be disciples
of a Rabbi without a home

And I,
Well I,

I want to believe
I'm unlike the others

I know how to stand
at a careful distance

I know how to name
what has gone wrong

I know the language of justice
I know the failures of church
I know the machinery of power
I know how money moves
I know how holiness becomes a brand

And I certainly know

how to tell a story in which
I am the one who sees

Jesus

save me

from needing to be
the one who sees.

Jesus

When I am still enough
I find you near

You do not ask me
to explain the world

You ask me
to follow you through it

So here I am

I repent
I return

The arguments I rehearse
they run loud

Can you quiet
the part of me
that has to win?

This morning
This day
This breath

I am listening
I am seeking

May my next moments be lived
in union with you

in service
to my daughters

in attentiveness
to my wife

in hope
for my neighbors and enemies

May a smile arrive

as your love,
shed abroad my heart,

melts away
the need to be right

and leads me towards
the joy of being kind.

Jesus

You are making
all things new.

Begin in me.

Blessing

Dear Friend

May you return this day
wherever you find yourself

to the quiet center
where the mercies of God are new.

May your ideologies
that separate
the wheat and the tares
become idols
laid at the feet of Christ.

May prayer no longer be
words spoken to God,
but a life lived
in union with God.

Be blessed.

In the Name of Christ
Who Called Zealots and Tax Collectors alike
to Follow Him

Amen

Lectio Divina

The Swiss physician, Paul Tournier, in midlife shifted the location of his medical practice from a consulting room with its examining table and supporting laboratories and surgeries, to his living room before a fireplace.

For the rest of his life he used words, listened to and spoken in a setting of personal relationship, as the primary means for carrying out his healing vocation.

He left a way of medical practice that was primary focused on the body and embraced a medical practice that dealt primarily with the whole person, an integrated being of body, soul, and spirit.
Eugene Peterson

Give me an undivided heart
that I may fear your name
Psalm 86

Prayer

Oh God
May I be a saint

Not the kind
who seeks
to be seen

But like a child
unselfconsciously
lost in play

In the pulpit
In private

Blinds open
Blinds closed

Oh God
Make me one

Blessing

Dear Friend

May you listen
to the weary bones in your body
that cry for congruence.

May you lose the need
to be seen as good
and discover the joy
of becoming good.

May Christ liberate you
from every audience
you were never meant
to entertain.

Like a child
lost in play,
may you live
unto the glory of God.

In the Name of Christ

Amen

Lectio Divina

I will try from now on, with your grace, to make no more fuss about ‘being a contemplative’ about acquiring that perfection for myself. Instead I will seek only you, not contemplation, and not perfection, but you alone. Then maybe I will be able to do the simple things that you would have me do, and do them well, with pure intention in peace, silence, and obscurity, concealed even from my own self, and safe from my poisonous self-esteem.
Thomas Merton

I have stilled and quieted my soul
like a weaned child with its mother
like a weaned child is my soul within me.
Psalm 131

Prayer

Lord

When I first heard
Come follow me

I thought it meant
Show me what you can do

So the determined child
climbed on stage

Watch me, Jesus
Watch me, world

Look how faithful
Look how radical
Look how intelligent
Look how clever

Only now
am I learning
the invitation
was not to ascend

but to come down
from stages
crafted by men.

Come.

Be still.
Be seen
without performing.

There is no stage here.
Nothing to prove.

Only belovedness
to receive
and receive

until it spills over
into a world
of weary performers.

Blessing

Dear Friend

May you hear the good news.

Jesus loves you.

May your shoulders lower.
May you let out a breath.

In the Name of the One
Who Forgives and Renews

Amen

Lectio Divina

Tomorrow will worry about itself.
Jesus, Matthew 6

Prayer

Lord

Tomorrow
she turns
six.

Help me.

I wish to hold
what cannot
be held.

Teach me
to be
here.

Not tomorrow

Not yesterday
when I rocked her to sleep
in my arms.

Here.

Palms open
in praise and surrender.

Blessing

Dear Friend

May Divine Countenance shine upon you.
May you find sacred, your here and now.

Take in a slow deliberate breath.
Feel your lungs expand.

You are alive.
God is near.

Here in this ordinary time.

Though we cannot defeat
the passage of time, we may learn
to inhabit it
with a smile.

God bless you.

In the Name of the One
Who Created All Things in Love

Amen

Lectio Divina

The spiritual journey is full of paradoxes. One of them is that the humiliation that brings us down eventually takes us to a firmer and fuller sense of self. When people ask how it felt to emerge from depression, I can only give one answer: I felt at home in my own skin for the first time.
Parker Palmer

While he was still a long way off,
his father saw him and was filled with compassion.
Luke 15

Prayer

Lord

Who have I become?

Not against
the measure
of yesterday,
but the young man
who first heard
your voice?

I have lived inside
a pigsty of stories
that excuse my wrongs
and paint a man unbreakable.

Oh God of Grace

May every
crafted narrative
fall away
until I see
the child
who never needed
to be remarkable.

May the
clenched hands
of proving
at last
be loosened.

May my humiliations
be a balm
for the wounds
long wrapped
but never healed.

Until I am
at home
at rest
at peace
within every
holy limitation,
may your own story
unfold in me.

Amen

Blessing

Dear Friend

Home is found when striving ends.

May your weary feet find the road back to the country of God’s grace.

May you discover beneath every story you’ve told, a beloved child.

May the embrace of God find you this day.

May you also embrace your truest self.

In the Name of Christ
who welcomed every wanderer home

Amen

Lectio Divina

Did becoming older bring me closer to Jesus?
Henri Nouwen

After twenty-five years of priesthood,
I was living in a dark place
and the term burnout
was a convenient psychological translation
for a spiritual death.
Henri Nouwen

What good is it for someone to gain the whole world?
Mark 8

Prayer

Lord

I have seen
people receive
everything
they prayed for

I have arrived
at the horizons
I once saw
from a distance

But only
one thing
is needful

May my mind
preoccupied

with deadlines
and grievances

come back
to a quiet center

Closer
than my skin

Inside
every breath
I receive

O Living God
Author of Shalom

May I desire
what cannot be achieved

Blessing

Dear Friend

Our tradition reminds us:
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
have always lived
in perfect love.

May you find your place
in their dance.

And when your heart wanders
into smaller, make believe kingdoms
may perfect love call you home.

In the Name of Christ
Amen

Lectio Divina

Direct my footsteps according to your word
let no sin rule over me
Psalm 119:133

Until you make the unconscious conscious,
it will direct your life and you will call it fate.
Carl Jung

Prayer

Lord

You know
all my vices

You know
the underlying fear

The hunger
beneath the hunger

Prune my behavior, yes

But lay axe
to the root

Teach my feet
a different path

until joyful
obedience
becomes
the way
home.

Blessing

Dear Friend

May the God who knows
the root and the fruit
guide you
one faithful step
at a time, until
congruence takes form.

You have heard of God’s forgiveness,
may your feet give way to God’s path.

May it guide you
to a joy unimagined.

In the Name of the One
Who is Faithful to Call Us By Name

Amen

Lectio Divina

Suffering produces perseverance;
perseverance, character;
and character, hope.

And hope does not
put us to shame.
Romans 5

I do not believe in destiny.
I believe in character.
John McCain

Prayer

Lord

Will these days
become my excuse
or my formation?

The valley
of suffering
appears again.

And I know.

Not all
who enter
leave the same.

From what script will I read my story?

Am I a victim?

Or a man
forged in the fire?

I lay all I am before you, God.

Come
transmute anger
into compassion and strength.

May it not calcify into a
deformed soul
with misshapen desire.

Come, Holy Spirit.
Let Imago Dei emerge.

Blessing

Dear friend

May you be as clay
in the hands of
an Artist
when you enter
the arenas
of unforeseen pain.

The Lord is with you.

In the Name of the Artist
Faithful to Finish the Work Begun in You

Amen

Lectio Divina

A man is a man, no more, no less. The awareness of this fact marks the supreme moment of human dignity.
Howard Thurman

The Lord is a God who avenges.
O God who avenges, shine forth.
Rise up, Judge of the earth;
Pay back to the proud what they deserve.
How long, oh Lord?
How long will the wicked be jubilant?
Psalm 94

Prayer

an unjust killing
from the violent hands
of tax funded state officials
is at the heart
of my religion

the sound of anger
a persistent lament
is the dominant prayer
of the Hebrew people

christ
you were well acquainted
with desperate prayers
for kingdom come

christ
you entered
the sorrows born
of injustice

and you wept

lord i ask
mourn with us
create beauty
through the raw material
of these anguished cries

for Lorenzo and his family
for the well being
of my immigrant siblings

oh lord
in your mercy
maranatha

Blessing

Dear Friend

May you be a light in this world

In the Name of Christ
Amen

Lectio Divina

Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!

See, your king comes to you,
righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Zechariah 9

Prayer

Lord

Help me hear
the prophet, and
the poet.

His imagination
of procession
and power,
quiet.

I would prefer
the overthrowing
of unjust systems.

What else is a righteous victory?

Lord

Baptize me
in the waters
of your kingdom
where gentleness
reigns above
horses and flags
and weapons of war.

Blessing

Dear Friend

May the news not cause your blood pressure to rise above its resting measure. You do know it’s socially engineered to do just that, yeah?

May you take in the breath and beauty of this Sunday morning. May God’s nearness be your treasure immeasurable. May you not need to arrive any place on a horse.

May gentleness become your native language.

May exceptionalism be but an invitation to care for the least of these.

May you participate in the reign of God, not with anxious noise, but quiet determination to love deeply, to notice the weak, to greet the strong, to walk in gentleness and justice.

In the Name of the One Who Said
Follow Me

Amen

Lectio Divina

He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”
Luke 24

I don’t want to talk about you
like you’re not in the room.
Misty Edwards

Prayer

Like an alarm
going off
at some
scheduled
future

my autopilot self
assumes
you will grow loud
when I need you
when you need me.

No wonder
I wonder
underneath
the noise of
daily life

where you are.

Today
I hear the
quiet invitation.

Revelation
is not a mountaintop.

It is stillness
in the valley
of ordinary life.

You do not wait at a finish line.
You are all along this winding road.

Like Cleopas
talking about Jesus to Jesus
on the way to Emmaus,
my Sunday morning rituals
miss the point.

Oh to be at the table with you long enough
for my eyes to be opened as his.

Come Holy Spirit.

Blessing

Dear Friend

May the eyes of our hearts be opened.
May we know the joy of Brother Lawrence.
May we live in the presence of God.

In the Name of the One Who Knocks
Amen

Lectio Divina

Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.
Jesus, Matthew 10

The true lover
lives only
to love the beloved.
Li-Young Lee

Prayer

This morning
I followed the path
of birds, disappearing
into the sky.

For a moment, I traced
their arc and dance
until there was only
the openness they entered.

Maybe this
is how you lead.

Not with linear certainty
but invitation.

Teach me courage
to follow…

To release what is too small.
To trade fear for wonder.

And when my steps trace
the very edge of all I know

may I find you
already there

waiting, in Hagar’s wilderness
addressing me by name.

Oh
God who sees
God who leads

I can hear you

Blessing

Dear friend

May you discover the strange grace
on the other side of surrender.

May you be free from the burden
of having to possess your own life.

May the cross you bear
be the cost of relinquishing
your false self.

All of life is an internship
in the school of unconditioned love.

We are gonna be alright.

In the Name of the One
Who Proclaimed Good News

Amen

Lectio Divina

I have loved you
with an everlasting love
Jeremiah 31

Joy does not simply happen to us.
We have to choose joy
and keep choosing it every day.
Henri Nouwen

Prayer

Before there was achievement
There was breath

Before there were goals
There was wonder

Before there were plans
There was creation singing

The birds do not hurry
The trees do not compare

This morning does not apologize
for arriving slowly

Thank you Lord

Today is not a problem to solve
But a gift to receive

Blessing

Dear Friend

May you notice and receive
what has not been earned

May you move through the day
with open hands

In every meal, every conversation,
may you have the wisdom to pause
and give thanks

In the Name of the One
Who dined and dwelled among us
Amen

Lectio Divina

All my friends are finding new beliefs
and I am finding it harder and harder to keep track
of the new gods and the new loves
and the old gods and the old loves
Christian Wiman

Dear children, keep yourselves from idols.
1 John 5:21

Prayer

Lord

I am finding
with every mountain I climb
there is but one summit

That thin line
upon the heights
where Heaven and Earth meet

It is all
a single
earned
confession

I am not god
I am human

Blessed
Invited

to love
and receive
in ways
more generous
than before

Look
another mountain
rises before me

I’m learning now
to stop romanticizing
and start enjoying
the path beneath

One step
then another

Kindness
Mercy
Praise

Here I am, Lord

Blessing

Dear Friend

Whatever you hold tightly this morning,
may you learn to see it with new eyes.

May all things become
an arena to practice
your humanity
for all our days
are but an internship
in the school of love.

May you reflect
the kindness of God
everywhere you already are.

May you enjoy
the presence of God
everywhere you already are

In the Name of Christ
The One Who Conquered Death
The One Who Prayed for His Crucifiers
The One Who Sustains Us
The One Who Taught Us to Pray

Amen

Lectio Divina

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Romans 12

I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire
in all that I am doing.
Thomas Merton

Prayer

Lord

Morning pulls at me
from every direction

Even before
the little ones
call my name

Return me
to the quiet center

Communion
and the loving gaze

May my love be pure
Unvarnished
Without need to be seen

May passion be born of daily breath

Grace received
Gratitude returned
All in joyful union

Draw me close

Blessing

Dear Friend

When I was young, I burned passionately for God. I also longed to be seen, admired by the ones I held in high esteem. That adolescent child is finally now a tired middle aged man! The voices I once strained to impress grow quieter each year. Praise be to God.

And yet, something holy still remains. The same passion now longs to be transmuted into a generous presence offered to those God has placed before me.

I pray God reigns in us this day.

May our love ask for little in return.
May we offer our attentiveness freely.
May we receive the grace of stillness.
May we enjoy the nearness of God.

In the Name of the One
Who Lifts Our Eyes

Amen

Lectio Divina

If you love me, show it by doing what I’ve told you. I will talk to the Father, and he’ll provide you another Friend so that you will always have someone with you. This Friend is the Spirit of Truth.
John 14:16-17, MSG

Taking the easy yoke is to lay aside your projects or my projects, which are crushing — this is where leaders come under intolerable pressure. It is because they are carrying their projects; they have presumed to take God’s projects and made them their projects.
Dallas Willard

Prayer

This morning
I woke up slow
and I thought of you

As the smile
broke across my face

I thought of younger days
when I would ask
you favors

Now
breathing through
a fortieth year
around the sun

I am
at rest

Your loving gaze
your friendship
is enough

Let me put my shoes on
Let’s go
for a morning walk

Blessing

Dear Friend

On this Pentecost Day

May the Spirit of God
be less of an abstraction
more of a companion.

May you hear her voice
and smile.

May you find the eternal Shalom.

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

Lectio Divina

Martha. Martha.
You are worried and upset about many things.
But few things are needed
or indeed, only one.
Jesus

To pay attention,
this is our endless and proper work.
Mary Oliver

Prayer

Outside,
cicadas fill the dark
with song.

The kitchen light
still burns above the sink.

I think of Mary
remaining in the room
as Martha moves on to the next.

My hands rest quietly
on the table.

And for a moment,
I stop reaching past
Your presence
already here.

For once,
I let the day remain unfinished.

Blessing

Dear friend

We can do the dishes
in order to move on to the next task.

Or we can do the dishes
to do the dishes
in the Presence of God
with gladness.

Perhaps this
is the mystery
of joy…

Every moment is an invitation
to be at the feet of Christ.

May you stumble into that sacred gift.
Many times, each day,
all the days of your life.

May your shoulders lower.
May your breath deepen.

May Christ dwell richly in your heart.

In the Name of the One, Who said

Mary has chosen what is better.

Amen.