Prayer

URGENCY for the well-being of the earth is born in the heart of God. The divine desire moves through the world, seeking to make all creatures radiant with goodness and alive with righteousness. True prayer includes every desire of our own that helps align us with this loving movement of the Spirit. Once we realize this, we’re very close to prayer “without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17).

- Robert Corin Morris
Wrestling with Grace: A Spirituality for the Rough Edges of Daily Life

From p. 203 of Wrestling with Grace: A Spirituality for the Rough Edges of Daily Life by Robert Corin Morris. Copyright © 2003 by the author
via Upper Room website

The following is from this website of Thom M. Shuman
...http://prayersfortoday.blogspot.com/
book mark it !


crumbs . . .

that's what we think
you have given us,
O God,
when we look around
and see all that someone else has
and we don't.

but our covetousness crumbles
when we think of the broken bread
that has made us whole,
when we drink from the cup of hope
which is never empty,
when we stand at the foot of the cross,
which has emptied us of our sin.

so richly blessed . . .

why then are we only willing
to offer crumbs
to those who come to us
searching for you?

Amen.

(c) 2005 Thom M. Shuman

A recommended blog:
http://opensourcespirituality.blogspot.com/

Autumn is slipping through summer's branches
and I am listening.
I am listening to the dying
flowing forth from autumn's being.
I am listening to the life
hidden in the dying.

I am listening.

I am listening to the trees taking off their lush green garments.
I am listening to the leaves turning, turning, ever turning.
I am listening to the burning bush of autumn.
I am listening to the falling of this season.

I am listening.

I am listening to the song of transformation,
to the wisdom of the season,
to the losses and the grieving,
to the turning loose and letting go.
I am listening to the surrender of autumn.

I am listening.

I am listening to the music of the forest's undergrowth,
to the crunch of leaves beneath my feet,
to the miracle of crumbling leaves becoming earth again.
I am listening to the beauty and fragility of aging.

I am listening.

I am listening to the wheel of the year turning
to the cycle of the seasons,
to the call for harmony and balance.
I am listening to the circle of life.

I am listening.

I am listening to days growing shorter,
to the air turning crisp and cool,
to the slow waning of the light,
to the stars that shine in cold, dark nights.
I am listening to the growing harvest moon.

I am listening.

I am listening to happy harvest cries,
to hearts overflowing with thanksgiving,
to tables laden with gifts from the earth,
to baskedts overflowing with fruit,
I am listening to the bountiful gift of autumn.

I am listening.

I am listening to a call for inner growth,
to my need to let go of material possessions,
to my need to reach out for invisible gifts.
I am listening to a call for transformation.

I am listening.

I am listening to the death of old ways.
I am listening to the life force turning inward.
I am listening to the renewal of the earth.

I am listening.

I am listening to summer
Handing over autumn
I am listening to the poetry of autumn.

I am listening.

~Macrina Wiederkehr

A collection to collect or re-collect my forgotten thoughts

LET ME RISE
~ by Wendell Berry

When I rise up
let me rise up joyful
like a bird

When I fall
let me fall without regret
like a leaf.

(from Prayers and Sayings of the Mad Farmer, Collected Poems


THE FIST
~ by Mary Oliver

There are days
when the sun goes down
like a fist,
though of course

if you see anything
in the heavens
in this way
you had better get

your eyes checked
or, better still,
your diminished spirit.
The heavens

have no fist,
or wouldn’t they have been
shaking it
for a thousand years now,

and even
longer than that,
at the dull, brutish
ways of mankind—

heaven’s own
creation?
Instead: such patience!
Such willingness

to let us continue!
To hear,
little by little,
the voices—

only, so far, in
pockets of the world—
suggesting
the possibilities

of peace?
Keep looking.
Behold, how the fist opens
with invitation.

(from Thirst, Beacon Press, 2006




Blessings
Blessed are those who are emptied of all that doesn’t matter, those for whom the riches of this world just aren’t that important.
The reign of heaven is theirs.

Blessed are those who wear compassion like a garment.
For they too shall receive comfort.

Blessed are the creators of peace, those who build roads that unite rather than walls that divide, those who bless the world with the healing power of their presence.
For they shall be called the children of God.

Blessed are those whose love has been tried, like gold,
In the furnace and found to be precious, genuine, and lasting, those who have lived their belief out loud, no matter what the cost or pain.

–Macrina Wiederkehr



“If heaven is on earth, it’s hardly contradictory to love sunshine chevroned with tree shadows in the woods, plus the low-slung moss, a tiger-colored butterfly, the Tiffany glitter of a spider’s web after a gust of rain, and the yellow-spotted salamander emerging from under the nearest log—yet feel content to die.”
–from Curtain Calls: The fever called “living” is conquered at last by Edward Hoagland



ONCE A PERSON KNOWS
~ by Baal Shem Tov

It is therefore written: "Hide, I will hide my face."
That is, God will be hidden
so that they do not even know God is there.
But once a person knows God is hidden,
God is not really hidden.

(from The Path of Blessing, by Rabbi Marcia Prager, Jewish Lights, 2003




FEAR NOT THE STRANGENESS
~ by Rainer Maria Rilke

You must give birth to your images.
They are the future to be born.
Fear not the strangeness you feel.
The future must enter you
long before it happens.
Just wait for the birth,
for the hour of new clarity.

(Letters to a Young Poet, Transl. Stephen Mitchell,
New York: Vintage Books, 1986)

WORLDS ARE FORMING
~ by Meister Eckhart

All beings
are words of God,
His music, His
art.

Sacred books we are, for the infinite camps
in our
souls.

Every act reveals God and expands His being.
I know that may be hard
to comprehend.

All creatures are doing their best
to help God in His birth
of Himself.

Enough talk for the night.
He is laboring in me;

I need to be silent
for a while,

worlds are forming
in my heart.



IF YOU LOVE
~ by St. John of the Cross (1542-1591)

You might quiet the whole world for a second
if you pray.

And if you love, if you
really love,
our guns will
wilt.


(from the Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices
from the East and West, translation Daniel Ladinsky
- Penguin Compass, 2002)


PRAYER IS AN EGG
~ by Jalaludin Rumi (1207-1273)

Don't do daily prayers like a bird
pecking, moving its head
up and down. Prayer is an egg.

Hatch out the total helplessness inside.


(translated by Coleman Barks)

these and others can be found at http://www.faithhousemanhattan.org/faith_house

"WORD Jazz"

"WORD Jazz"

Advent, this Sunday

THIS SUNDAY, we celebrate the beginning of Advent, and pray that it may be a season of peace. We hover on the edge of our expectation — let the season of Advent begin. Let us prepare and relish our celebrations with the joy of God’s love in our hearts. We rejoice in our traditions, that they might renew our bonds of fellowship with family, friends, and church members. Let us consider what true gifts we might offer to each other and God. Help us to know when it is our faith, patience, kind words, listening ear, or time that would be needed and appreciated. Most of all, let us anticipate the arrival of the Christ child. We make a place in our hearts and homes. Let us look ahead to the coming weeks of the Advent season with joy in our hearts and our steps. We will live each day in the light of Emmanuel, as we follow the path of peace.

Alive Now

From Alive Now, November/December 2004. Copyright © 2004 by The Upper Room.
via Upper room website