Readings week of September 1st.

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Readings from last week's Daily Contemplative Pauses

*All previous readings & reflections can be found here*

Monday, September 1st

Reading: “Gurdjieff spoke of two sacred practices: conscious labor and intentional suffering. Conscious labor means doing willingly what is required of you in the moment, no matter how menial or difficult, with the whole of your being engaged. Intentional suffering is the conscious acceptance of the unpleasant — in particular, the unpleasant manifestations of other people — without resistance, judgment, or retaliation.”

“Both of these practices, conscious labor and intentional suffering, are forms of kenosis, self-emptying. They are ways of letting go of our habitual strategies of avoidance and control, so that a new quality of presence can come into the world through us.” - Cynthia Bourgeault

Wednesday, September 3rd

Reading: 'How Could I Reject Who I Am?' by Mechtild of Magdeburg, Germany, c.1212-82

A fish cannot drown in water. A bird cannot fall in the air. Gold is not dissolved in fire—for there it receives its brilliant sheen. This gift is given to everything: To live with its own nature. How could I oppose who I am? I am inclined toward God, and must go through all things into God.

Chant: Do not give your heart, do not give your heart, to that which does not satisfy your heart – Susan Latimer

Friday, September 5th with Joy

Reading: "The strongest prayer, one well-nigh almighty in what it can effect and the most exalted work a man can do proceed from a pure heart. The more pure it is, the more powerful, and the more exalted, useful, laudable and perfect is its prayer and work. A pure heart is capable of anything.

What is a pure heart?

A pure heart is one that is unencumbered, unworried, uncommitted, and which does not want its own way about anything but which, rather, is submerged in the loving will of God, having denied self. Let a job be ever so inconsiderable, it will be raised in effectiveness and dimension by a pure heart." —Meister Eckhart

Chant: Purify my heart, purify my heart, let me rest in you – Joy Hayter

Saturday, September 6th 

Reading: ‘Letting Go’ – from a poem by Stephanie Kaza, in Woman Prayers: Prayers by Women from Throughout History and Around the World 

Let go of the place that holds, Let go of the place that flinches, Let go of the place that controls, Let go of the place that fears.

Just let the ground support me.

Listen, the wind is breathing in the trees.

Sensing the edge of soft and hard, I follow the unseen path.

Walking in the dark night, I practice faith,

Building confidence in the unknown.

Walking in the dark night, I practice courage, accepting the vastness of what I cannot see. 

Chant: Stilled and quiet is my soul, in Love’s presence, I take my rest – Sister Helen Marie Gilsdorf, RSM via Catherine Regan

Sunday, September 7th

Reading: “The key to the awakening that is Wisdom is having a clear perception of reality. Wisdom does not lead you to this clarity; She is this clarity. Imagine that you wake up in the middle of the night to find a snake coiled at the end of your bed. You freeze in fear, and spend the rest of the night awake, afraid, and unable to move. As dawn bathes your bedroom in soft light, you suddenly realize that the "snake" is simply the belt that you forgot to put away as you undressed the night before. The fear ends as quickly as it arose. Nothing has changed but the quality of your perception. You see clearly and can respond to what is rather than to what you imagined.

“This is how Mother Wisdom works. She doesn't change anything; She illumines everything. She is right seeing. Chochma "pervades and penetrates" all things (Wisdom of Solomon 7:24). She is the ordering principle of the universe. What you see when you see Her is analogous to seeing the grain in wood, the current of wind and oceans, and the laws of nature, both the macrocosmic and the microcosmic. Just as you cannot separate the grain from the wood, or the current from the wind, or law from nature, you cannot separate Wisdom from creation. She is the Way things are.

“You do not pray to Her or choose Her; you simply see Her and work in harmony with Her. Wisdom operates for you whether or not you appreciate Her. What distinguishes the wise from the foolish is their ability to distinguish between a belt and a snake.” — Rami Shapiro, The Divine Feminine in Biblical Wisdom Literature 

Chant: O Wisdom, I entrust myself to you, that I may be transformed – Suzanne Toolan RSM & Catherine Regan

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