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From the Daily Contemplative Pauses
Monday with Chris
Persistent Visitor of Grace,
come as a tender breeze or a fierce wind
through the opened window of my soul.
Greet me with the necessary assurance
that I have enough love and genuine care
to extend compassion for what aches in myself
and in the distressed people homing in my heart.
Come like a sweeping wind through my being.
Gather the best of my love to your expansive love.
Carry this on the wide wings of your sacred breath
to places, people, and creatures crying out to be freed
from whatever it is that chides, hurts, and worries them.
Stir up a passionate vision for a positive future.
Vibrate in my spirit and transmit your message
through the uncertain steps of my pathway.
Increase hope for a peaceful unity of spirit
to grow stronger within our troubled humanity.
Come with your tornadic, Pentecost-force.
Lift away clouds of human greed and apathy
that rob the lands of what is most precious
and steal water and air’s rightful cleanliness.
Come as a constant, insistent motivator
to the part of myself that continually requires
your resonant, transforming presence.
Persuade me to change whatever I must
in order to be more heartfully yours.
Come as a refreshing breeze of the early morning.
Dawn in my heart with the kind of inhaling joy
that only you can give to the sleepy soul.
Return in the evening as the exhaling stillness of dusk.
Lead me to gather the bounty for which to give thanks.
O wild, beguiling, pushy, playful, determined Spirit,
I am ready for you to entice my heart further,
to enter into a deeper and more complete communion
with your gusty and life-giving presence.
— Joyce Rupp
Tuesday with Chris
Divine Love
One could say that it is
brilliant beyond imagination,
Peace Itself, true Life, one could
say these things
but in the end one can only say
what it is not—
It is not anything here,
It is nothing material
although it is the essence of everything
we experience and know, including
our own thoughts and life
It is not you, not my memories
or all that we shared
It is nothing on earth
that we call a personal life,
This Divine Love
is a meeting Soul to Soul
a radiation of
God’s Love; it has no needs
no desires, no thoughts.
It is the Heart broken open
onto and into the universe
as steadily as the sun
gives its light to the cosmos.
— Laurie Conrad, A Mystical Memoir, The Spiritual Journey of Laurie Conrad, unpublished
Wednesday with Chris
"To be on the spiritual path is to know that love is the overflowing fullness of God’s limitless Presence, moving us and prompting us to yield to God’s loving Presence, embodied in our sincere efforts to be as loving as we can be toward God, ourselves, others, and the Earth that sustains us all.
And to be on the spiritual path is to know by experience how often the centrifugal force of our circular journey through time sends us flying out and away from our sense of interconnectedness with God’s Presence in our lives. And how this disconnected and harried state is intensified by fear and anger and other painful emotions, rooted in past and present traumas and abandonments, causing us to get caught up in unloving and hurtful beliefs, attitudes, and ways of treating ourselves and others.
It is in the midst of these sad and harried times that the spiritual path becomes the healing path. We learn to discern and accept the promptings of Grace to activate the healing energies of repentance, responsibility and mercy."
— James Finley, The Healing Path, p. 152
Thursday with Lacey
Transitions can only take place if we are willing to let go of what we have known, the worlds we have created, and our assumptions about “how things are.” To let go is the precursor to being reborn. We discard the baggage of societal expectations and, like a morning glory, open to the possibilities of each new day, each new moment, even if those possibilities are shadowy and disorientating…
We say that we are letting go, but, in our society, letting go is more like a tug of war. We diligently guard our stories (true or not), our lifestyles, and our belief systems until they are ripped from our sweaty palms. And yet, letting go is a necessary part of transformation….
When we let go, the only constants are God’s love and God’s promise that we will never be left alone. This space that I name contemplative is a place of breaking, relinquishment, and waiting.
— Barbara Holmes
In the radiance of dark, there is process:
the unfolding of mystery,
things words cannot articulate,
a threshold to freedom the mind cannot comprehend.
But the body feels,
the heart knows:
This is liminality.
The threshold of transition,
from death to life, from evening to morn,
from gestation to giving birth.
The unknown is a part of it all.
— Felicia Murrell
Friday with Heather
MORE GOOD ROAD STORIES
The good road from above is like a
hidden treasure a man finds buried in a
field. He buries it back into the ground
and is then happy to go and trade every.
thing he has for that field.
The good road from above is also
like a trader in goods who is looking for
the finest of beads. When he finds one
of great beauty and worth, he trades all
his goods so he can have it.
Here is another way to see the good
road from above: A large fishing net is
let down into the great waters. Many dip.
ferent kinds of fish are caught in it
aWhen it is filled up, the fishermen pull
it to shore. Then they sit down and separated
the good fish into baskets and
throw away the bad fish. . .
He smiled and said to them,
Every scroll keeper who has learned to walk in
the ways of Creator's good road is like the
head of a family, an elder who opens the
medicine pouch of his heart, sharing
wisdom that is both new and old, bringing
new understanding to the old ways.
— Matthew 13:44-48, 52, First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament
Saturday with Heather
THE ROAD OF LOVE
In the same way the Father loves me.
I have loved you. Never stop walking this
road of love. By doing what the Father
has told me, I have remained in his love.
As you walk in my ways, my love will
remain in you. I am saying this so your
hearts will be filled with the same joy
I have.
To walk the road with me, you
must love each other in the same way I
have loved you. There is no greater
way to show love to friends than to die
in their place. You are my friends if you
walk in my ways and do what I say. I no
longer see you as my servants but as
friends. Masters do not share their
hearts and plans with their servants, but
I have shown you everything I have
heard from my Father.
You may think you chose me, but I
am the one who chose you. You are my
new garden where I will grow a great
harvest of my love—the fruit that
remains. When you bear this fruit, you
represent who I am—my name. Then the
Father will give you whatever you ask
for. "I am telling you this so you will
walk the road of love with each other.
— John 15: 9-17, First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament
Sunday with Joy
Each Soul Completes Me
My Beloved said, "My name is not complete without yours." I thought: How could a human's worth ever be such? And God knowing all our thoughts — and all our thoughts are innocent steps on the path — then addressed my heart, God revealed a sublime truth to the world, when He sang, "I am made whole by your life. Each soul, each soul completes me.
— Hafiz, translated by Daniel Ladinsky
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