As we continue to make space for the Wisdom rhythms that keep us connected to what the heart knows amidst life's many rhythms, we must be gentle, patient and kind with ourselves and others. Living from the heart, where the infinite meets the finite and we have a foot in both, is not always an easy place to live. At times we enjoy feeling stretched and widened by these realities existing within, and at other times it can seem more than we can bear. We must be kind to both our divine nature—that at times can be experienced as limited in this earthly realm, confined by this earthly body, mind, and emotional landscape—and our creaturely nature that at times can be experienced as too vast and expansive in the heavenly realm, overwhelmed by our inherent wholeness. And it is good to remember help from within and beyond is always there, rushing toward us in unexpected ways, although not always in the form we would desire. May we all bring gentleness, patience, and kindness to ourselves and others, and open to help, as we continue to engage Wisdom rhythms and live more fully from the heart. With Love, Heather
From the Daily Contemplative Pauses
Monday
From today's Collective Contemplative Pause. . .
“Through the discipline of contemplative prayer, [we] have to learn to listen again and again to the voice of love and to find there the wisdom and courage to address whatever issue presents itself to [us]. Dealing with burning issues without being rooted in a deep personal relationship with God easily leads to divisiveness because, before we know it, our sense of self is caught up in our opinion about a given subject. But when we are securely rooted in personal intimacy with the source of life, it will be possible to remain flexible without being relativistic, convinced without being rigid, willing to confront without being offensive, gentle and forgiving without being soft, and true witnesses without being manipulative.” — Henri Nouwen, ‘In the Name of Jesus,’ p.31-32
Tuesday
"His students grieved and mourned greatly saying:
How are we to go into the rest of the world proclaiming the Good News about the Son of Humanity’s Realm? If they did not spare him, how will they ever leave us alone?
Mary arose, then, embracing them all and began to address them as her brothers and sisters saying:
Do not weep and grieve nor let your hearts remain in doubt, for his grace will be with all of you, sustaining and protecting you. Rather, let us give praise to his greatness which has prepared us so that we might become fully human.
As Mary said these things their hearts opened toward the Good and they began to discuss the meaning of the Savior’s words."
— Gospel of Mary Magdalene: First Part of Dialogue II, Mary Magdalene’s words of encouragement to the disciples
Wednesday
"For this mysterious meeting ground does indeed belong to both realms, the finite and infinite. With regard to the finite, it is the highest and most pure point of divine beingness that can be enfleshed. With regard to the infinite, it is the "ombudsman," so to speak, of the divine life force as it expresses itself in each individual being, and it is the agency through which the heart is able to carry out its task of vertical alignment. When, through the nous, the vibrational field of a particular human heart comes into spontaneous resonance with the divine heart itself, then finite and infinite become a single, continuous wavelength, and authentic communion becomes possible. Bridging the created and uncreated realms within a human being, it is both a realm in itself and the means by which this realm makes itself known.” — Cynthia Bourgeault, "The Meaning of Mary Magdalene," p.60-61
Saturday
COURAGE “is a word that tempts us to think outwardly, to run bravely against opposing fire, to do something under besieging circumstance, and perhaps, above all, to be seen to do it in public, to show courage; to be celebrated in story, rewarded with medals, given the accolade, but a look at its linguistic origins leads us in a more interior direction and toward its original template, the old Norman French, Coeur, or heart. Courage is the measure of our heartfelt participation with life, with another, with a community, a work, a future. To be courageous, is not necessarily to go anywhere or do anything except to make conscious those things we already feel deeply and then to live through the unending vulnerabilities of those consequences. To be courageous is to seat our feelings deeply in the body and in the world: to live up to and into the necessities of relationships that often already exist, with things we find we already care deeply about: with a person, a future, a possibility in society, or with an unknown that begs us on and always has begged us on. Whether we stay or whether we go - to be courageous is to stay close to the way we are made…” — David Whyte, "Consolations: The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words"
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