“Whatever their bodies do affects their souls. It is funny how mortals always picture us as putting things into their minds: in reality our best work is done by keeping things out…”
― C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters
Monthly Archives: January 2013
love in practice
“Forgiveness is the name of love practiced among people who love poorly.
The hard truth is that all people love poorly.
We need to forgive and be forgiven every day, every hour increasingly.
That is the great work of love among the fellowship of the weak that is the human family.”
-Henri Nouwen
living, moving, reviving
“Break from the tomb in which we hide you
to speak again in startling ways;
break through the words in which we bind you
to resurrect our lifeless praise.
Come now, as once you came to Moses
within the bush alive with flame,
or to Elijah on the mountain,
by silence pressing home your claim.”
-Alan Gaunt, Hymn: Come, living God, when least expected
peace prayer
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is error, truth;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
And where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in self-forgetting that we find;
And it is in dying to ourselves that we are born to eternal life.
-Amen.
-Saint Francis of Assisi (1182–1226)
amen.
“Because there was life before my life
There was provision before my need
There was redemption before my sin
For the sake of the world
I thank the Lord
That the truth’s not contingent on me.”
-Caedmon’s Call, The Truth
giving and receiving
the avowal
As swimmers dare
to lie face to the sky
and water bears them,
as hawks rest upon air
and air sustains them,
so would I learn to attain
free fall, and float
into Creator Spirit’s deep embrace,
knowing no effort earns
that all-surrounding grace.
-Denise Levertov (1923–1997)
a psalm of love
“Thank you for children
brought into being
because we loved.
God of love,
keep us loving
so that they
may grow up whole
in love’s overflow.”
-Joseph Bayly
keep it comin’…
“We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.”
-Martin Luther King, Jr.
let your God love you
Be silent.
Be still.
Alone.
Empty
Before your God.
Say nothing.
Ask nothing.
Be silent.
Be still.
Let your God look upon you.
That is all.
God knows.
God understands.
God loves you
With an enormous love,
And only wants
To look upon you
With that love.
Quiet.
Still.
Be.
Let your God—
Love you.
-Edwina Gateley
peacocks for pilgrims 