Another quote/thought for the day

AFTER MORE THAN forty years of praying, I still do not understand prayer. I get up many mornings and go to my place of devotion with no sense that my praying makes any difference. This does not mean that I go there reluctantly or discouraged; it simply means I go there realizing that prayer will always be bigger than me and beyond me. I pray realizing that I am not the one in charge. I also find that the older I get, the more content I am to leave some situations in the realm of mystery and wonder.
- Steve Harper Talking in the Dark: Praying When Life Doesn’t Make Sense

From p. 34 of Talking in the Dark: Praying When Life Doesn’t Make Sense
by Steve Harper.
Copyright © 2007 by Steve Harper.
All Rights Reserved.
. http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/. Learn more about or purchase this book.

Some quick , disconnected rambles... (are there any other kind) during lunch before getting back to church for Park Prayers!
I hope to be done soon with the cough cold sniffle crud yuk that I have had for some time; Beth now has it (again) and Nick is hoping to avoid it because he has the lead part for the school one act play competition..lots of lines to speak and he needs a strong voice. My "book-spiritual connection clergy group "is starting Nouwen's Reaching Out and that meets at 2 today. I actually did my reading. The church year end Table Reports have been sent in!
I have been enjoying facebook and since the cold crud has limited my pastoral contacts the Fb got some attention, as well as some advance worship preparation, and other odd in office, in house jobs. The slower pace was hard so my talk about practicing spiritual discipline of silence and centering prayer is still not easy for me to practice. Thanks for rambling along.

Tex Sample on You Tube

Tex Sample is a preacher/ teacher /writer who catches my attention.
I have passed on some of his stories before but here is a you tube piece that is worth a watch!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaOrq3Uvkiw

WE DO NOT GATHER today to look good.
We do not gather today to see our friends.We do not gather today to get all the answers
But we gather at your feet, lean on your lap and listen,Waiting to hear how you dare us to move.
- Ciona Rouse The Africana Worship Book: Year B
From page 146 of The Africana Worship Book: Year B, edited by Valerie Bridgeman Davis and Safiyah Fosua. Copyright © 2007 by Discipleship Resources.
http://www.upperroom.org/bookstore/.
Learn more about or purchase this book.

Centering Prayer Intro

The Spiritual Practice for February is Silence and Centering Prayer can be a way to explore this so
here is a video introducing it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IKpFHfNdnE

this is a little long but very thought provoking about food and our lifestyles etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YkNkscBEp0&eurl=http://flatandfertile.blogspot.com/&feature=player_embedded

The Inaugural poem

Praise song for the day
By Elizabeth Alexander

Each day we go about our business,
walking past each other,
catching each others' eyes or not,
about to speak or speaking.
All about us is noise.
All about us is noise and bramble,
thorn and din,
each one of our ancestors on our tongues.
Someone is stitching up a hem,
darning a hole in a uniform,
patching a tire,
repairing the things in need of repair.
Someone is trying to make music somewhere
with a pair of wooden spoons
on an oil drum with cello,
boom box, harmonica, voice.
A woman and her son wait for the bus.
A farmer considers the changing sky.
A teacher says, "Take out your pencils. Begin."
We encounter each other in words,
words spiny or smooth,
whispered or declaimed;
words to consider, reconsider.
We cross dirt roads and highways
that mark the will of someone
and then others who said,
"I need to see
what's on the other side;
I know there's something better
down the road.
We need to find a place
where we are safe.
We walk into that
which we cannot yet see.
Say it plain,
that many
have died for this day.
Sing the names of the dead
who brought us here,
who laid the train tracks,
raised the bridges,
picked the cotton and the lettuce,
built brick by brick
the glittering edifices
they would then keep clean
and work inside of.
Praise song for struggle.
Praise song for the day.
Praise song for every hand-lettered sign,
the figuring it out at kitchen tables.
Some live by
"Love thy neighbor as thy self."
Others by "first do no harm",
or "take no more than you need".
What if the mightiest word is love,
love beyond marital, filial, national.
Love that casts a widening pool of light.
Love with no need to preempt grievance.
In today's sharp sparkle,
this winter air,
anything can be made,
any sentence begun.
On the brink,
on the brim,
on the cusp –
praise song
for walking forward in that light.