Readings from last week's Daily Contemplative Pauses
Monday, July 22nd with Heather
Reading: “Waking up should be the goal of all spiritual work, sacraments, and Bible study, but, at least in the West, this has not been the case. Because we were not practice-based for the most part, and had a bias against inner experience, it seemed very presumptuous to actually believe—or believe possible—the conclusion of every significant mystic: Jesus’ “I and the Father are one” (see John 10:30), Augustine’s “God is closer to me than I am to myself,” or Catherine of Genoa’s “My deepest me is God.” Organized Christianity largely described waking up in terms of growing up, and that growing up was almost entirely interpreted in highly moralistic terms—and even that morality was largely culturally defined!
The goal in waking up is not personal or private perfection, but surrender, love, and union with God. Any preoccupation with my private moral perfection keeps my eyes on myself and not on God or grace or love. Cleaning up is largely about the need for early impulse control and creating necessary ego boundaries so we can actually show up in the real and much bigger world.” – Richard Rohr, https://cac.org/daily-meditations/growing-up-waking-up-and-cleaning-up/
Tuesday, July 23rd with Heather
Reading: "Lord, in the presence of your love, I ask that you unite my work with your great work, and bring it to fulfillment. Just as a drop of water, poured into a river, becomes one with the flowing waters, so may all I do become part of all that you do. So that those with whom I live and work may also be drawn to your love." — Gertrude of Helfta in Woman Prayers
Wednesday, July 24th with Heather
Reading: "Silence is not the absence of something but the presence of everything... It is the presence of time, undisturbed. It can be felt within the chest. Silence nurtures our nature, our human nature, and lets us know who we are. Left with a more receptive mind and a more attuned ear, we become better listeners not only to nature but to each other. Silence can be carried like embers from a fire. Silence can be found, and silence can find you. Silence can be lost and also recovered.
But silence cannot be imagined, although most people think so. To experience the soul-swelling wonder of silence, you must hear it." — Gordon Hempton, One Square Inch Of Silence
Chant: draw me deeper into silence, draw me deeper into you
Thursday, July 25th with Lacey
Reading: "There is no place for place! How can a place house the maker of all space, or the vast sky enclose the maker of heaven? He told me: "I am a homeless treasure. The world was made to give you a place to stand and see me.” Tell me, if the one you seek is placeless, why put your shoes on? The real road is found by polishing, polishing the mirror of your heart." — Hafiz
Friday, July 26 with Lacey
Reading: "With true consciousness, in contrast to passive awareness, the present moment is a wide space. Daydreams, nagging memories, and the beckoning of an imaginary future have less of a hold on us, because the present is perceived as it is, in the perfection of its many dimensions. This is awareness conscious of itself. True consciousness is knowing that you are.
Presence is the state of having this conscious energy, this quality of attention activated. In the present state of culture and conditioning, the state of presence is normally unavailable to people except in occasional flashes. It is possible, however, to cultivate consciousness, to sustain it, and to make our home in it.
As human beings, we can know that a single creative energy connects everything and that we are integral to it. We are one with the Whole." — Kabir Helminski, Living Presence
Chant: Attend to the Living Presence, here and now (by Darlene Franz)
Saturday, July 27 with Chris
Reading: "The world will look upon you with honor when it sees you diligently preserving the rules of piety and devotion, a piety and devotion that is wise, earnest, strong, noble, and totally sweet.
As regards the virtues to be practiced in dealing with others, the first is kindliness…By this virtue the pious soul, by showing agreeable, courteous and polite manners with no trace of uncouthness, draws others to imitate him in the devout life.
Add to this virtue the virtue of faithfulness, by with the devout soul gains the confidence of others and all become aware that his behavior is straightforward and free from duplicity.
Lord, teach me to love myself, so that I can also love others. Make me faithful, kind, courteous, polite and straightforward, so that by my example, I draw others to you. Amen."
— Padre Pio’s Words of Hope, p. 92,108
Chant: Spirit of Truth, open my Mind, Soul of Wisdom, open my Heart
Sunday, July 28th with Chris
Reading: IN THE BEGINNING by Rivka Miryam
In the beginning God created
the heavens that really are not
and the earth that wants to
touch them.
In the beginning God created
threads stretched between them
between the heavens that
really are not
and the earth crying out.
And the man he created
the man who is a prayer
and a thread
touches that which is not
with a touch of softness and light.
Chant: I am a hole in the flute that the Christ Breath moves through, listen to the music, listen to the music
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