Heather Ruce

Readings from last week's Daily Contemplative Pauses *All previous readings & reflections can be found  here *   Monday, January 5th Reading: “The paradox: All experience strips us of much except our sheer strength of mind, of spirit. All experience reveals that upon these we must not finally depend. Brooding over us and about us, even in the shadows of the paradox, there is something more— There is a strength beyond our strength, giving strength to our strength. Whether we b

Readings from last week's Daily Contemplative Pauses *All previous readings & reflections can be found  here *   Monday, December 29th Reading :  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

Dear Ones,   The season of Christmastide is now upon us, carrying its quiet yet important invitation to be present to what has been birthed once again. If we turn to the Ray of Creation as a way of understanding what the “tide” of Christmas is truly about, we begin to glimpse the deeper significance of the Incarnation and its implications for our own lives and spiritual work.    As Cynthia Bourgeault has taught, when God brought creation into existence, it was not fashioned a

Readings from last week's Daily Contemplative Pauses *All previous readings & reflections can be found  here *   Monday, December 15th with Lacey Reading: “Come, Lord, Jesus,” the Advent mantra, means that all of Christian history has to live out a kind of deliberate emptiness, a kind of chosen non-fulfillment. This keeps the field of life wide open and especially open to the grace and to a future created by God rather than ourselves. This is exactly what it means to be “awak

Dear Ones,   We are now in the third week of Advent, drawing closer to the celebration of Christmas. For many of us, this season is marked by familiar rituals with those we love, such as exchanging gifts and sharing a special meal or feast. On the horizontal plane of ordinary life—what Cynthia Bourgeault’s Christian Wisdom lineage names World 48 —these rituals matter deeply. They help weave meaning, belonging, and continuity into our lives. When, for any reason, we are unable

Readings from last week's Daily Contemplative Pauses *All previous readings & reflections can be found  here *   Monday, December 1st  Readings: “Advent is a journey towards Bethlehem. May we let ourselves be drawn by the light of God made man.” — Pope Francis “For outlandish creatures like us, on our way to a heart, a brain, and courage, Bethlehem is not the end of our journey but only the beginning – not home but the place through which we must pass if ever we are to reach

Dear Ones, Today we begin the observance of Advent, the tender, expectant season leading us toward the celebration of Christ's birth and the opening of the liturgical year. Advent asks us to grow wider in heart and perception, to lean into the inherent metaphysical paradoxes at its core. We are asked to be present to what seems like opposites: that Holy Origin, Spirit, and Eternal Logos (Word) entered the world in human form as a vulnerable, preverbal infant, and that same di

Dear Ones,   Wisdom is calling us to know, rest in, trust, and embody down to the cellular level, our capacity to operate from the deeper self rooted in Origin, God, the Holy One. From this rooted and awake inner stance, we can move beyond our automatic fear and the aggression that often follows. There is a reason the most common charge in the ancient biblical texts is “Do not be afraid” or “Fear not.”  Humans, like all other animals, experience fear as automatic, overwhelmin

Readings from last week's Daily Contemplative Pauses *All previous readings & reflections can be found  here *   Monday, November 10th  Chants:   Sink into the taproot of your heart   –  Heather Ruce Mercy, Mercy, Mercy, deep within and all around   –  Henry Schoenfield Tuesday, November 11th Chant: Come be with me, all you who carry heavy burdens, I will give you rest, I will give you rest   –  chanted by Colleen Thomas Wednesday, November 12th Reading: " We succeeded in ta