Readings week of February 9th.

Readings from last week's Daily Contemplative Pauses

*All previous readings & reflections can be found here*

Monday, February 9th with Tom

Reading: Vespers

The mismatched stack of fine

books on my right lay

unperturbed as I curled

into the eye shadow

of dusk, so hungry …

for what could

never be written

nor said

nor seen,

just that. — Tom Amsberry

Chant: Deeply descend into I Am, deeply descend into One 

— The Oriental Orthodox Order in the West

Tuesday, February 10 with Tom

Reading: Accidental Prayer

You see someone helping 

an elderly woman gather 

the things from her handbag 

that overturned on an escalator-

lipstick tubes, perfume bottle, 

loose change and you say 

to yourself: I could do the same, 

let a stranger know they matter. 

Then the simple act of kindness 

you witnessed becomes a prayer 

that ripples out and out, touching 

the far shore of your despair. — James Crews

Chant: Oh Love Consume Me; Let Kindness Arise

Wednesday, February 11 with Tom

Reading: “The Christian of the future will be a mystic or he will not exist at all”. He argued that in a secularized world, faith must be based on personal, experienced encounter with God rather than mere tradition, or it will cease to exist.”  — Karl Rahner

Now God says to us

What He has already said to the earth as a whole

Through His grace-filled birth:

I am there. I am with you.

I am your life. I am your time.

I am the gloom of your daily routine. Why will you not hear it?

I weep your tears - pour yours out to me.

I am your joy.

Do not be afraid to be happy; ever since I wept, joy is the standard of living

That is really more suitable than the anxiety and grief of those who have no hope.

I am the blind alley of all your paths,

For when you no longer know how to go any farther,

Then you have reached me,

Though you are not aware of it.

I am in your anxiety, for I have shared it.

I am in the prison of your finiteness,

For my love has made me your prisoner.

I am in your death,

For today I began to die with you, because I was born,

And I have not let myself be spared any real part of this experience.

I am present in your needs;

I have suffered them and they are now transformed.

I am there.

I no longer go away from this world.

Even if you do not see me now, I am there.

My love is unconquerable.

I am there.

(It is Christmas.

Light the Candles. …

It is Christmas.

Christmas that lasts forever.)

Body Posture Prayer

By Order of Julian of Norwich

The prayer has four simple postures. And intentions. AWAIT (hands at waist, cupped up to receive): Await God’s presence, however it may come to you. ALLOW (reach up, hands open): Allow a sense of God’s presence) to come …or not…and be what it is. ACCEPT (hands at heart, cupped towards body): Accept as a gift whatever comes or does not come. Accept that you don’t know everything, that you are not in charge. ATTEND (hands outstretched, ready to be responsive): Attend to what you are called to, willing to be present and be God’s love in the world, however God calls you to. 

Thursday, February 12 with Tom

Reading: A Blessing for the Inward Way

May you learn to dwell

Below the surface of the days

At home with the ebb and flow of

Your own heart's tides.

May you find the womb space at the center of your Life,

There grow wise in the sacred rhythm

Of filling and emptying,

Emptying and filling.

There, held safe,

May you surrender to the unknown

As completely as the dark moon

Empties herself into the secret embrace of her Beloved, the Sun.

There may you cherish hope of renewal

As tenderly as the crescent moon

Cradles the dark in the curve of her arm,

Enfolding, quickening with life new born.

And may you always open to the flow of love

As voluptuously as the moon at full,

Until filled, overflowing, you pour

Love's gifts out into the world.

So may you grow ever more intimate

With the inward way, the deepening way,

Where filling is emptying, emptying is filling ~

At one with the mystery, at one. — Tracy Shaw

Chant: We Are Held in Love — Joy Andrews Hayter

Friday, February 13th with LeMel

Reading: Thirteen

Come again, Life-Giver,

Blow warm breath upon the grimy snow;

Uncover tentative shoots

Struggling to breach the muck

Come again, Spring-Renewer;

Raise our eyes to greening branches,

Unfurl tender leaves

Hidden in budding limbs.

Come again in lengthening days;

Give us back our ambition

To sow the fortunes of our people

Beneath the fertile souls of Your teaching.

Come again in sunlight and gentle rains,

Nurturing the roots of Your law

With the ever growing sustenance

Of our faith.

Come again as we turn our faces to You,

As a young plant stretches toward the sun,

As a spotted fawn stretches toward his mother,

As the chick’s beak opens to her father.

— From Debbie Perlman in Flames to Heaven: New Psalms for Healing & Praise, former Psalmist-in-Residence at Beth Emet The Free Synagogue

Chant:

Come, oh, come again

Life-Giver we turn to you 

In lengthening days

In sunlit gentle rains

Come, oh, come again

Saturday, February 14th with LeMel

Reading: Set Your Seal

Set me like a seal over your heart,

like a seal on your arm.

For love is as strong as death,

passion as intense as Sheol. — Song of Solomon 8:6

The indelible mark of your care for me

Where shall I find it?

Everywhere and on my heart

The presence of your regard

When shall I sense it?

Here and now

The companionable hum of your lullaby

What melody is this?

Whisper close and thrumming

The honied taste of your presence

Who can compare?

Lingering and luscious

The incense of your essence

Why question this grace?

Only take a breath and pull you in — LeMel Firestone-Palerm

Chant:

Take, O take me as I am; summon out what I shall be; 

set your seal upon my heart and live in me. — John Bell

Note: LeMel will start posting a reading and a chant once a day for a year starting on Ash Wednesday, February 18th called Quips and Murmurs. If you would like to check these out you can do so here: Substack and/or YouTube

← Previous Post

Next Post →