Dear Ones,
There are two more weeks of the Lent. Our work throughout this season has been with prayer and fasting as a way of cultivating and stabilizing enjoyment as well as repentance and self-examination with the intention of cultivating and stabilizing a climate of welcome within. Let us keep engaging these spiritual practices as we prepare ourselves to journey with Yeshua and Mary Magdalene through the events of Holy Week and the Easter Triduum.
Lenten blessings,
Heather
Daily Contemplative Pauses Readings
from last week
Monday, March 11th with Tom
Chant: And God said, I am made whole, by your life, every soul, every soul, completes me (words from Hafiz put to chant by Marilyn Scott)
Tuesday, March 12 with Chris
This by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
Sit with the freedom in your heart.
Feel it expanding into your palms—
in this moment whole galaxies
seem to fit inside your fingertips. How?
When did you become this vast?
Was this spaciousness always here?
Could you have felt this way yesterday
if only you had gotten out of your own way?
Sit with the freedom in your heart—
more beautiful than any story—
feel it surge through you
until your body forgets any limits
and knows itself as infinite.
Freedom will do what freedom does—
invite you to touch the source of the universe,
replace, for this moment, your fear with awe.
Chant: Surrender to the Beauty, become a mighty Kindness
Wednesday, March 13th with Heather
“Many of the great world religions picture the earth as being created and sustained by the steady, rhythmic “breathing” of God. Virtually every tradition starts you off on a spiritual practice by bringing attention to your breath and teaching you to breathe fully and consciously. [Benedictine monk] Father Theophane . . . liked to remind his retreatants, “Every breath you take is the breath of God.” — Cynthia Bourgeault
Chant: everywhere you turn, there is the breath of God
Thursday, March 14th with Heather
“Around us, life bursts forth with miracles— a glass of water, a ray of sunshine, a leaf, a caterpillar, a flower, laughter, raindrops. If you live in awareness, it is easy to see miracles everywhere. Each human being is a multiplicity of miracles. Eyes that see thousands of colors, shapes, and forms; ears that hear a bee flying or a thunderclap; a brain that ponders a speck of dust as easily as the entire cosmos; a heart that beats in rhythm with the heartbeat of all beings. When we are tired and feel discouraged by life's daily struggles, we may not notice these miracles, but they are always there.” – Thich Nhat Hanh
Chant: we swim in mercy, as in an endless sea (by Susan Latimer)
Friday, March 15th with Tom
I find you, Lord, in all Things and in all by Rainer Maria Rilke trans. by Stephen MitchellI find you, Lord, in all Things and in all my fellow creatures, pulsing with your life; as a tiny seed you sleep in what is small and in the vast you vastly yield yourself. The wondrous game that power plays with Things is to move in such submission through the world: groping in roots and growing thick in trunks and in treetops like a rising from the dead.
Chant: the earth is full, full of your goodness, the earth is full, full of you, your goodness fills the whole earth (by Darlene Franz)
Saturday, March 16th with Heather
Out of Nothing by Thomas Keating
To be nothing
Is to consent to being a simple creature.
This is the place of encounter with
"I AM that I Am."
When there is no more "me, myself, or mine,"
Only "I AM" remains.
Then the "I" may fall away,
Leaving just the AM.
God empowers our powerlessness
So that we never despair
Of unconditional forgiveness and infinite mercy.
Such is the grace of inner resurrection, And the reward of seeking no reward.
Chant: Deeply descend into I AM, deeply descend into AM
Sunday, March 17 with Henry
“Our hearts, minds, and souls are hard-wired for the cosmic responsibility we bear, and all the currents of our being set toward the Whole a surely as all rivers flow toward the sea. We did not make it this way, and we have no choice in the matter. But when we open our hearts to our true citizenship, the freedom, coherence, and community we so yearn for are right there to meet us. And the broken and scattered shards of our world are reunited and illuminated by the Master's art as we become persons of love.” — Cynthia Bourgeault
Chant: You are the source of life and the radiance that shines in all (by Henry Schoenfield)