Monthly Archives: August 2016

one family

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O God, who hast made of one blood all nations of men, mercifully receive the prayer that we offer for our anxious and troubled world.

Send Thy light into our darkness and guide the nations as one family into the ways of peace.  Take away all prejudice and hatred and fear.  Strengthen in us day by day the will to understand.

And to those who by their counsels lead the people of the earth, grant a right judgement, that so through them and us Thy will be done through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.”

-Ralph Cushman, Pocket Prayer Book, 1941

humility

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“Man is a creature who depends on revelation. In all his intellectual endeavor, he should always listen, always be intent to hear and see. He should not strive to superimpose the structures of his own mind, his systems of thought upon reality…At the beginning of all spiritual endeavor stands humility, and he who loses it can achieve no other heights than the heights of disillusionment.”

-Dr. Friedrich Dessauer

morning resolve

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I will try this day to live a simple, sincere and serene life, repelling promptly every thought of discontent, anxiety, discouragement, impurity and self-seeking; cultivating cheerfulness, magnanimity, charity, and the habit of holy silence; exercising economy in expenditure, generosity in giving, carefulness in conversation, diligence in appointed service, fidelity to every trust, and a childlike faith in God.

-Bishop Vincent

instruments (1)

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The sky is strung with glory.
Light threads from star to star
from sun to sun
a liv­ing harp.
I rejoice, I sing, I leap upwards to play.
The music is in light.
My fin­gers pluck the vibrant strings;
the notes pulse, throb, in exul­tant har­mony;
I beat my wings against the strands
that reach across the galax­ies
I play

NO

It is not I who play
it is the music
the music plays itself
is played
plays me
small part of an innu­mer­able
unnum­ber­able
orches­tra.
I am flung from note to note
impaled on melody
my wings are caught on throb­bing fil­a­ments of light
the wild cords cut my pin­ions
my arms are out­stretched
are bound by ropes of coun­ter­point
I am cross-eagled on the singing that is strung
from puls­ing star
to flam­ing sun
to

I burn in a blaze of song.

-Madeleine L’Engle

to be loved and known…

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To be loved but not known is comforting but superficial. To be known and not loved is our greatest fear. But to be fully known and truly loved is a lot like being loved by God. It is what we need more than anything. It liberates us from pretense, humbles us out of our self-righteousness, and fortifies us for any difficulty life can throw at us.

-Tim Keller

for cheerfulness this day

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O God, who hast folded back the mantle of the night to clothe us in the golden glory of the day,

chase from our hearts all gloomy thoughts,

and make us glad with the brightness of hope,

that we may effectively aspire to unwon virtues, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

-An Ancient Collect, A.D. 590

I choose this…

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“My life is small, but God’s ambitions are bigger and wider and deeper than anything I planned or meant my life to be.  I choose this. I choose to cultivate a life of the Spirit, to cultivate grace in the potty training, in the tantrums, in the relentless sameness of my plain, ordinary, beautiful life.”

-Micha Boyett, “Found”

…for we are very deaf

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Lord, we confess our day to day failure to be truly human.

Lord, we confess to you.

Lord, we confess that we often fail to love with all we have and are,
often because we do do not fully understand what loving means,
often because we are afraid of risking ourselves.

Lord, we confess to you.

Lord, we cut ourselves off from each other and we erect barriers of division.

Lord, we confess to you.

Lord, we confess by silence and ill-considered word

We have built up walls of prejudice.

Lord, we confess that by selfishness and lack of sympathy
we have stiffeled generosity and left little time for others.

Holy Spirit speak to us.
Help us listen to your word of forgiveness,
for we are very deaf.

Come, fill this moment, and free us from sin.

 

-Methodist Hymnal ‘Prayer of Confession and Pardon’ #893