Readings week of September 28th.
Updated: 5 days ago
Readings from last week's Daily Contemplative Pauses
*All previous readings & reflections can be found here*
Monday, September 28th
Reading: “A God who makes a world capable of its own becoming is a God who has taken a risk, who has let the other be, knowing the other might go astray. Theologians call this kenosis, the self-emptying of God. Usually it is read as a statement about the divine nature, but Paul describes an act, not a substance: God does not cling to Godhood. What is emptied is not being but power, the grip on outcomes. And what such a God becomes in us is genuinely new, something that was not there before the world responded. This is hard to hear, because we have so conditioned ourselves to think of God as a being distinct from us that we can barely think of God as entangled with us.” — Ilia Delio
Chant: Be still and know I Am God. Be still and know I Am. Be still and know. Be still. Be.
Tuesday, September 29th
Reading: What Is Your Own
Hold what is your own,
and more will be given.
The acorn’s tree is offered freely,
as the smallest carries the whole.
Become small,
and know,
treasures are held
in inconspicuous vessels.
Give what you have
Receive what is yours.
Children play all day
in a field they do not own.
At evening they hand it back,
nothing held as their own.
With two masters,
in this world and the next,
give what you have,
receive what is yours.
Make no one sad,
whether great or small.
Bring peace to those
who take pleasure in goodness.
Trade the passing
for the lasting,
faithful in much.
Give what you have
Receive what is yours
True riches are gift,
that which is your own,
on the far side of letting go.
— William Britten
Chant: [Give] all things you have and come and follow me — Darlene Franz
Wednesday, September 30th
Reading: Please
If you are one who has practice
meeting the pain of the world,
we need you.
Right now we need you
to teach us it is possible
to swallow what is weighty
and still be able to rise.
We need you to remind us
we can be furious and scared
and near demolished by injustice
and still thrill at the taste
of a strawberry, ripe and sweet,
can still meet a stranger
and shake their hand,
believing in their humanness.
We need you to show us how
we, too, can fall into the darkest,
unplumbed pit and learn there
a courage and beauty
we could never learn from the light.
If you have drowned in sorrow
and still have somehow found
a way to breathe, please, lead us.
You are the ones with the lanterns we need,
the ones we will use to find our way
back into the refuge of each other's hearts.
— Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
Chant: With you is the well of life and in your light we see light — Susan Latimer
Thursday, October 1st with LeMel
Reading: God Gives Us Wine To Taste
Do not despair if the Beloved seems to push you away today.
It’s only so that tomorrow you will be drawn back again.
If doors close in your face, don’t leave
just wait, you’ll soon be back by the Beloved’s side.
If your passageways are all barred,
don’t lose hope.
The Beloved is about to show you a secret way that nobody knows.
God’s blows do not bring death.
They bring eternal life.
This is also the way God gives us the wealth of Solomon’s wisdom.
And the treasury of both worlds to all who ask.
God gives and gives, yet never terrifies a single heart.
I’ve traveled to the ends of the earth
and have never found anyone like this.
Who can match the Beloved?
Who can hold a candle to that glory?
Let there be silence now.
God gives us wine to taste
not talk about.
And gives us wine to taste.
And gives us wine to taste.
And gives us wine to taste.
— Rumi
Chant:
Friday, October 2nd with Catherine
Reading: …Let there be silence now.
God gives us wine to taste
not talk about.
And gives us wine to taste.
And gives us wine to taste.
And gives us wine to taste.
— Rumi
The natural world in Autumn as wine to taste:
Nature Divina Nicholas Fournie, Communications Coordinator, The Contemplative Society
Chant: Stillness, in the stillness, God moves
Saturday, October 3rd with Catherine
Reading: Sabbaths 1999, VII
Again I resume the long
lesson: how small a thing
can be pleasing, how little
in this hard world it takes
to satisfy the mind
and bring it to its rest.
With the ongoing havoc
the woods this morning is
almost unnaturally still.
Through stalled air, unshadowed
light, a few leaves fall
of their own weight.
The sky
is gray. It begins in mist
almost at the ground
and rises forever. The trees
rise in silence almost
natural, but not quite,
almost eternal, but
not quite.
What more did I
think I wanted? Here is
what has always been.
Here is what will always
be. Even in me,
the Maker of all this
returns in rest, even
to the slightest of His works,
a yellow leaf slowly
falling, and is pleased.
— Wendell Berry
— The Oriental Orthodox Order in the West
Sunday, October 4th with Henry
Reading: Last night I became mad.
Love saw me and said: I am here.
Don't shout, don't wail.
Just be silent.
Don't talk about the mundane,
talk of nothing but beauty.
I am the servant of this magnificence.
Just be silent.
I said: O Love,
what I fear is something else.
Love said: There's nothing else.
Just be silent.
I will whisper
great secrets in your ear.
Just nod yes.
And be silent.
I said: Love. Is this face angel or human?
Love Said: Neither angel nor human.
It is other.
Just be silent.
I said: I will lose my mind if you don't tell me.
Love said: Then lose your mind,
and stay that way.
Just be silent.
You, who sits in this house
filled with images and illusions,
Get up, walk out the door.
Go, and be silent.
— Rumi
Chant: Be still, be silent
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