Readings week of April 27th.

Readings from last week's Daily Contemplative Pauses

*All previous readings & reflections can be found here*

Monday, April 27th with Faye

Reading: I have come here to this planet 

to take in my life into my body and my being 

as deeply as possible. 

 So I begin each day 

searching for a way within 

to reconnect to what is essential in me:

 the way I sense, 

the way I breathe. 

And in order to conduct that search, 

I begin by moving the whole of my being 

closer to the great stillness 

that exists at the heart of this life. 

The stillness that is rooted in the place where it begins in secret. 

Where it begins in sensation. 

A place where the heart is more open to life itself. 

For this place is my true home, 

the place where I begin before anything happens. 

And here at the root of the soul, there is a great 

but at the same time very fine and gentle power 

that suffuses me. 

It arises deep within the tissues of being, 

in every cell and molecule that is here. 

All of them together 

in the great community of being. 

And here is where I wait for the goodness to flow into being,

for if I am attentive and present 

it will find me 

and deposit a single tiny golden particle of its nature 

here at the root of being: 

just enough each day 

to bring what is necessary and sufficient 

to help me take in my life more deeply. 

To have more respect and compassion for each person and creature I encounter. 

To remember that I wish to put love first before all things in my actions towards others. 

— Lee van Laer

Chant: I am within you, I am love … joy… peace… hope

Tuesday, April 28th with LeMel and Tom

Reading: Monk Merton

He’d be drunk or dead, lying

in a gutter somewhere (said his

friend to me) except for the cloister

and the hard swallow of

its ancient rule, that desire

to see beyond

the walls.  Those wrought

iron rails the rose climbs, the kite

ascending by the very knot

of its resistance.

— Tom Amsberry (Tom's Substack)

Chant:

May the knots in our being

Be a path for ascending

Closer, ever closer to You

— LeMel's Youtube and Substack (for daily readings and chants)

Thursday, April 30th with Lacey

Reading: The instrument given to us to participate in this dance, according to Wisdom, is our heart. Not our mind alone, certainly, nor simply the undisciplined riot of our subconscious, but something that both unifies and transcends them from a place of deeper wholeness. Spiritually understood, the heart is an organ of astonishing perceptivity and versatility that when fully awakened and tuned allows us to play our part in the dynamism of creation. …That is the heart’s genius: it picks up the patterns. That’s how it perceives. Beneath the surface of the physical universe, which so often appears “totally random.” it discerns the deeper proportion and coherence… this is because it is itself a hologram, a tiny replica of the divine intelligence, and it moves by matching the pattern.

— Wisdom Way of Knowing, p 84-85

Chant: Be right here in the heart of God

— Henry Schoenfield

Friday, May 1st with Catherine

Reading: Keeping Quiet

Now we will count to twelve

and we will all keep still.

For once on the face of the earth

Let’s not speak in any language.

Let’s stop for a second

and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment, without rush, without engines;

we would all be together in a sudden strangeness.

Fishermen in the cold sea would not harm whales,

and the man gathering salt would look at his hurt hands.

Those who prepare green wars, wars with gas, with fire,

victories with no survivors,

would put on clean clothes

and walk about with their brothers and sisters in the shade,

doing nothing.

What I want should not be confused with total inactivity:

Life is what it is about.

If we were not so single minded about keeping our lives moving,

and for once could do nothing,

Perhaps a huge silence might interrupt this sadness

of never understanding ourselves

and of threatening ourselves with death.

Perhaps the earth can teach us

as when everything seems dead in winter,

and later proves to be alive.

Now I’ll count up to twelve

and you keep quiet 

and I’ll go.

— Pablo Neruda

Chant: for a day of Sabbath 

Be still and know I AM God

— Psalm 46:10

Saturday, May 2nd with Catherine

Reading: Body Prayer (video found here)

Here I am, as I am

Holy, Human

In this world, as it is

Sacred, Profane

Ever connected, in this wondrous luminous web

Ever abiding, in the Heart of God

Chant:

I AM here, here with you

Rest in me

I in you, you in me

All is well

Sunday, May 3rd with Henry

Reading:

We have not come here to take prisoners, 

But to surrender ever more deeply

To freedom and joy.

We have not come into this exquisite world

To hold ourselves hostage from love.

Run my dear, 

From anything

That may not strengthen

Your precious budding wings.

Run like hell my dear, 

From anyone likely 

To put a sharp knife 

Into the sacred, tender vision 

Of your beautiful heart.

We have a duty to befriend 

Those aspects of obedience

That stand outside of our house 

And shout to our reason

"O please, O please, 

Come out and play."

For we have not come here to take prisoners 

Or to confine our wondrous spirits,

But to experience ever and ever more deeply

Our divine courage, freedom, and

Light!

— Hafiz, trans. Ladinsky

Chant: We were born of the light, there where light is born of light — Susan Latimer

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