REFLECTION

The universe, open to the eye today, looks as it did a thousand years ago. If we cannot find God in your house or in mine; upon the roadside or the margin of the sea; in the bursting seed or opening flower...in the procession of life, ever entering afresh, and solemnly passing by and dropping off, I do not think we should discern [God] any more on the grass of Eden, or beneath the moonlight of Gethsemane. 

--James Martineau, Endeavours After a Christian Life, Boston: Press of Thurston, Torry & Co., 1844.  pg 389.

 

REFLECTION

She was five,

sure of the facts,

and recited them with slow solemnity

convinced every word

was revelation.

She said

they were so poor

they had only peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to eat

and they went a long way from home

without getting lost. The lady rode

a donkey, the man walked and the baby

was inside the lady....

—  fromJohn Shea, "The Hour of the Unexpected," quoted in Ronald Rolheiser,This Holy Longing

 

REFLECTION

REFLECTION

Are any among you suffering? They should pray. Are any cheerful? They should sing songs of praise. Are any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Holy One. The prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Holy One will raise them up; and anyone who has committed sins will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.

James 5:13-16a

REFLECTION

...in summer there is

everywhere the luminous sprawl of gifts,

    the hospitality of the Lord and my

inadequate answers as I row my beautiful, temporary body

    through this water-lily world.

Mary Oliver, from "Six Recognitions of the Lord,",  in Thirst, p. 28

REFLECTION

On the feast of the Spirit we cry out for its descent. We long for comfort, for presence, for guidance, for empowerment. We ask for its gifts. Whether the Spirit comes as tender love on the wings of a dove or as fierce love in the rush of wind and flame, we celebrate its coming.

REFLECTION

The resurrection is a process that began with Jesus and that will go on until it embraces all creation

...

Wherever Hope is resisting the lure of cynicism or despair, there the process of resurrections is being turned into a reality.

Leonardo Boff, Way of the Cross - Way of Justice (1985)

Welcome to this service of remembrance.  Tonight we will be together as Jesus was with the disciples on his last night.  We will begin with the servant ritual of foot washing that Jesus offered the disciples, and continue with a simple meal.

REFLECTION

All gardeners know the importance of good root development before the leaves and flowers emerge. So our life in God should be deeply rooted and grounded before we presume to expect to produce flowers and fruits; otherwise we risk shooting up into one of those lanky plants which can never do without a stick.

REFLECTION

To love the world as God loves the world is to embrace it as it is and run with it, straining toward salvation.

from Rachel Reeder, "Art of Our Own Making"

in The Landscape of Praise: Readings in Liturgical Renewal,

Blair Gilmer Meeks, ed., p. 13.

REFLECTION

[We] must be men and women of ceaseless hope, because only tomorrow can today's human and Christian promise be realized; and every tomorrow will have its own tomorrow, world without end. Every human act, every Christian act, is an act of hope. But that means [we] must be men and women of the present, [we] must live this moment - really live it, not just endure it - because this very moment, for all its imperfection and frustration, because of its imperfection and frustration, is pregnant with all sorts of possibilities, is pregnant with the future, is pregnant with love, is pregnant with Christ.

REFLECTION 

It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view. The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision.

---Oscar Romero, from It Helps Now and Then