God of Life,

There are days when the burdens we carry are heavy on our shoulders and weigh us down, when the road seems dreary and endless, the skies grey and threatening.

When our lives have no music in them and our hearts are lonely and our souls have lost their courage,

Flood the Path with Light!                                 Amen.

                        St. Augustine

God before me, God behind me,
God above me, God beneath me.
I on your path O God
You, O God on my way.
In the twistings of the road
In the currents of the river
Be with me by day
Be with me by night
Be with me by day and by night.                              

View all problems as challenges.  Look upon negativities that arise as opportunities to learn and to grow.  Don’t run from them, condemn yourself, or bury your burden in saintly silence.  You have a problem?  Great.  More grist for the mill.  Rejoice, dive in and investigate.

                        Bhante Henepola Gunaratana from Mindfulness in Plain English

There is nothing I can give you which you have not; but there is much that, while I cannot give, you can take.

No Heaven can come to us unless our hearts find rest in it today. Take heaven.
No peace lies in the future which is not hidden in this present instant. Take peace.
The gloom of the world is but a shadow: behind it, yet within reach, is joy. Take joy.
And so, at this Christmas time, I greet you with the prayer that for you, now and forever, the day breaks and the shadows flee away.

On the basis of the belief that all human beings share the same divine nature, we have a very strong ground, a very powerful reason, to believe that it is possible for each of us to develop a genuine sense of equanimity toward all beings.

                                    The Dalai Lama in The Good Heart

The purpose of all the major religious traditions is not to construct big temples on the outside, but to create temples of goodness and compassion inside, in our hearts.

The greater our awareness regarding the value and effectiveness of other religious traditions, then the deeper will be our respect and reverence toward other religions.  This is the proper way for us to promote genuine compassion and a spirit of harmony among the religions of the world.

I claim to be an average man of less than average ability….I have not the shadow of a doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have, if he or she would make the same effort and cultivate the same hope and faith.                                                   Mahatma Gandhi

While most of us think of ordinariness as a fault or limitation, Gandhi had discovered in it the very meaning of life—and of history.  For him, it was not the famous or the rich or the powerful who would change the course of history.  If the future is to differ from the past, he taught, if we are to leave a peaceful and healthy earth for our children, it will be the ordinary man and woman who do it: not by becoming extraordinary, but by discovering that our greatest strength lies not in how much we differ from each other but in how much—how very much—we are the same.

This faith in the power of the individual formed the foundation for Gandhi’s extremely compassionate view of the industrial era’s large-scale problems, as well as of the smaller but no less urgent troubles we find in our own lives.  One person can make a difference.

                                    Eknath Easwaran  in Words to Live By

Good God,
May it please You to
Give me enough
            Tears to keep me human
            Humour to keep me wise
            Failures to keep me humble
            Successes to teach me confidence
            Waiting to teach me patience
            Memories to give me comfort
            Friends to give me love
            Faith to keep me going
May your spirit touch my spirit that 
I may always know myself connected in your
love.  I ask your blessing today on what I am
and on what I do.  Keep me moving ever into
your ways.     Amen.

The beauty of the trees,
the softness of the air,
the fragrance of the grass,
speaks to me.

The summit of the mountain,
the thunder of the sky,
the rhythm of the sea,
speaks to me.

The faintness of the stars,
the freshness of the morning,
the dewdrop on the flower,
speaks to me.

The strength of fire,
the taste of salmon,
the trail of the sun,
and the life that never goes away,
they speak to me.

And my heart soars.

God Would Kneel Down

            I think God might be a little prejudiced. 
For once he asked me to join Him on a walk
            through the world.

and we gazed into every heart on this earth,
            and I noticed He lingered a bit longer
            before any face that was
            weeping,

            and before any eyes that were
            laughing.

And sometimes when we passed
            a soul in worship,
            God would kneel
             Down.

I have come to learn: God
             adores His
             creation.

            St. Francis of Assisi

The Glory in the Grey

Almighty God…
Sun behind all suns,
Soul behind all souls….
Show to us in everything we touch
and everyone we meet the continued assurance of thy presence round us,
lest ever we think thee absent.
In all created things thou art there.
In every friend we have
the sunshine of thy presence is shown forth.
In every enemy that seems to cross our path,
thou art there within the cloud to challenge us to love.
Show to us the glory in the grey.
Awake for us thy presence in the very storm
till all our joys are seen as thee
and all our trivial tasks emerge as priestly sacraments
in the universal temple of thy love.

            George McLeod, excerpted by Philip Newell

When you see a truck bearing down on you, by all means jump out of the way. But spend some time in meditation, too. Learning to deal with discomfort; is the only way you’ll be ready to handle the truck you didn’t see.

            Bhante Henepola Gunaratana from Mindfulness in Plain English

Though becoming a monk or a nun is indeed one way of practicing generosity, most people can let go in the midst of busy, family-centered lives. What we need to reject is not the things we have, or our family and friends, but rather our mistaken sense that these are our possessions. We need to let go of our habit of clinging to the people and the material things in our lives and to our ideas, beliefs, and opinions.

            Bhante Henepola Gunaratana in Eight Mindful Steps to Happiness

If we cannot be happy in spite of all our difficulties, what good is our spiritual practice?

            Maha Ghosananda

Whatever attitudes we habitually use toward ourselves, we will use on others, and whatever attitudes we habitually use toward others, we will use on ourselves. The situation is comparable to serving food to ourselves and to other people from the same bowl. Everyone ends up eating the same thing—we must examine carefully what we are dishing out.

Bhante Henepola Guanartana

You can’t ever get everything you want. It is impossible. Luckily, there is another option:  You can learn to control your mind, to step outside of this endless cycle of desire and aversion. You can learn not to want what you want, to recognize desires but not be controlled by them.

            Bhante Henepola Gunaratana

Accept everything that arises. Accept your feelings, even the ones you wish you did not have. Accept your experiences, even the ones you hate. Don’t condemn yourself for having human flaws and failings. Learn to see all the phenomena in the mind as being perfectly natural and understandable. Try to exercise a disinterested acceptance at all times with respect to everything you experience.

Bhante Henepola Gunaratana

There is a difference between watching the mind and controlling the mind. Watching the mind with a gentle, open attitude allows the mind to settle down and come to rest. Trying to control the mind, or trying to control the way that one’s spiritual practice will unfold, just stirs up more agitation and suffering.

            Bhante Henepola Gunaratama

Be gentle with yourself. Be kind to yourself. You may not be perfect, but you are all you’ve got to work with. The process of becoming who you will be begins first with the total acceptance of who you are.

GOD’S NATURE

Sometimes we think what we are saying about God
is true when in fact
it is not.

It would seem of value to differentiate between what is
God’s nature and what is false about Love.

I have come to learn that the truth never harms
or frightens.
I have come to learn that

God’s compassion and light can never be limited;
thus any God who could condemn is
not a god at all
but some disturbing image
child

we best ignore, until we
can cure the
dark.

            Thomas Aquinas

Our Father and Mother who are in Heaven, let Your will and not mine be done.  Hallowed be your Name and not mine on earth and in Heaven. Give me this day my daily bread and help me not to worry about tomorrow. Forgive me my sins and give me a spirit of forgiveness for the sins of others. Lead me away from temptation and trouble and deliver me from my own evil and that of others.  And keep my eyes not on the world’s fleeting power and glory today but on Your kingdom, Your power,
and Your glory forever.

            Marion Wright Edelman

O God, let fear die and conviction be born in our lives.
Let your light dawn in our minds as the day dawns on the earth.
Let us not be so busy hurrying into the future and worrying about the past that we lose today—the only one we have.
God, help us do what we know we have to do today, and leave tomorrow to you.

            Marion Wright Edelman

O God, help me to feel Your presence everywhere I go today.
To see You in everyone I meet today.
To sense You in all I hear today.
To reflect You in all I do today.
To pray to and trust You in all I experience today.
To struggle to be like You in all I am today.
To speak of and for You in all I say today.
To thank You for everything every day.

            Marion Wright Edelman

Lord, think Your thoughts in me
do your work through me
build Your peace in me
share Your love through me.

            Marion Wright Edelman

Lord, help me to sort out what I should do first, second, and third today and to not try to do everything at once and nothing well. Give me the wisdom to delegate what I can and to order the things I can’t delegate, to say no when I need to, and the sense to know when to go home. 

            Marion Wright Edelman

O God, help me today to be happy and helpful rather than irritable and critical, to get myself out of the way so that others can sense You and not me.

Help me not to waste time worrying about the bad world we have but to use the time I have working for the better world our children need.

            Marion Wright Edelman

Lord, unwrinkle my tired soul
         unsnarl my garbled thoughts and words
                  unwind my gnarled nerves
                           and let me relax in Thee.

            Marion Wright Edelman

View all problems as challenges. Look upon negativities that arise as opportunities to learn and to grow. Don’t run from them, condemn yourself, or bury your burden in saintly silence. You have a problem? Great. More grist for the mill. Rejoice, dive in, and investigate.

            Bhante Henepola Gunaratana  from Mindfulness in Plain English

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into actions, and because there is only one of you in all time, the expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost.

Martha Graham

Baptizing Cats

We were very pious children from pious households in a fairly pious town… Once, we baptized a litter of cats… I still remember how those warm little brows felt under the palm of my hand. Everyone has petted a cat, but to touch one like that, with the pure intention of blessing it, is a very different thing. It stays in the mind. For years we would wonder what, from a cosmic viewpoint, we had done to them. It still seems to me to be a real question. There is a reality in blessing, which I take baptism to be, primarily. It doesn’t enhance sacredness, but it acknowledges it, and there is a power in that. I have felt it pass through me, so to speak. The sensation is of really knowing a creature, I mean really feeling its mysterious life and your own mysterious life at the same time.

            Marilynne Robinson in Gilead

Today

Let me live today.
Let me be open to the miracle of this day.
Let me breathe the best of today.
Let me not miss the heart of today.
Let me find the gift of today;
     hidden like a jewel in a rubble of care, duty, and detail.

Let me pause to hear
     the steady beat of the heart of God—
hoping, aching, sorrowing, expectant, patient,
     despairing heart of God.

Listen, listen.
Do you hear it?
Ever so faint but steady, steady,
     rhythmic organ, strong muscle,
     thumping, beating, pumping, sustaining encompassing,
wildly dancing heart of God.

Let me live this day, aware, open, listening, breathing, alive.

            The Reverend Virginia Going

Be praised, my God, by butterfly and dragonfly wings exercising for their first flight.

Be praised by lightning and thunder causing spring showers.

Be praised by the silent voice of grass growing and trees budding.

Be praised by all the colorful flower trumpets of spring.

Be praised by downy feathers freshly dried on newly hatched ducklings and chicks.

Be praised by the songs of birds, crickets and frogs.

Be praised, my God, by all your creation which tells of new life.

            Mary Goergen, O.S.F.

Bless this distracting frustration, O Lord,
as it must be a powerful source of growth for me.
I cannot pray it away (although I have tried)
as it is obviously
part of your plan.

So with wisdom and spiritual poise,
let me embrace this blessed frustration,
trusting in your divine intentions,
your omniscient ways, and even at times,
your sense of humor.

In the name of your Son, my savior,
Jesus Christ.
Amen.

            Cynthia Horvath Garbutt

If we are to teach real peace in this world and if we are to carry on a real war against war, we shall have to begin with children; and if they will grow up in their natural innocence, we won’t have to struggle; we won’t have to pass fruitless, idle resolutions, but we shall go from love to love and peace to peace, until at last all the corners of the world are covered with that peace and love for which, consciously or unconsciously, the whole world is hungering.

            Mahatma Gandhi, 1931

There is more to life than merely increasing its speed.

            Gandhi

Our choice is to be in love or to be in fear. But to choose to be in love means to have a mountain inside of you, means to have the heart of the world inside of you, means you will feel another’s suffering inside your own body and you will weep. You will have no protection from the world’s pain because it will be your own.

            China Galland, Longing for Darkness

As you read and think about this short poem, remember your friends and loved ones who grieve.

Joy is a partnership,
            Grief weeps alone;
Many guests had Cana,
            Gethsemane had one.

            Frederic Lawrence Knowles from “Grief and Joy”              

Using the Octave of Prayer in Preparation for General Convention
Prepared by the Rt. Rev. Jeffrey Rowthorn

A Prayer for the 75^th General Convention

God our Wisdom, who eternally makes all things new:
encourage by your Holy Spirit
those who prepare for General Convention
to labor together
for the building up of your world and your Church;
counsel them when to act and when to wait;
turn their hearts always toward those in greatest need,
and away from their own preoccupations and fears;
help them never forget that love and mercy are your
greatest gifts given us all to offer one another
as we see in them Jesus Christ who alone
is our joy, our way, our truth, and our life.

Day One: June 4, Pentecost – Growing in the Spirit

Read Galatians 16:16-26 

If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit.

Heavenly Father,
     we thank you that by water and the Holy Spirit
            you have bestowed upon us the forgiveness of sin,
            and have raised us to the new life of grace.
Sustain us, O Lord, in your Holy Spirit
            and renew in us an inquiring and discerning heart,
            the courage to will and to persevere,
            a spirit to know and to love you,
            and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works.
Amen.

            (Book of Common Prayer, page 308, alt.)

Day Two  June 5 Growing in Hope

Read Romans 8:18-25

For in Hope we are Saved

All my hope on God is founded;
he doth still my trust renew,
me through change and chance he guideth,
only good and only true.
God unknown,
he alone
calls my heart to be his own.

Mortal pride and earthly glory,
sword and crown betray our trust;
though with care and toil we build them,
tower and temple fall to dust.
May God’s power,
hour by hour,
be my temple and my tower.

Day Three  June 6 Growing in Love

Read Ephesians 3:14-21

You are being rooted and grounded in love.

O God, the Father of all,
you ask every one of us to spread love
where the poor are humiliated,
joy where the Church is brought low,
and reconciliation where people are divided,
father against son,
mother against daughter,
husband against wife,
believers against those who cannot believe,
Christians against their unloved fellow Christians.

You open this way to us,
so that the wounded body of Jesus Christ,
your Church,
may be leaven of communion for the poor of the earth
and in the whole human family.

            (Mother Teresa of Calcutta: 1910-1997)

Day Four  June 7 Growing in Understanding

Read 2 Timothy 2: 7-13

The Lord will give you understanding in all things

Grant, O God, that we may wait patiently,
as servants standing before their lord,
to know your will;
that we may welcome all truth,
under whatever outward forms it may be uttered;
that we may bless every good deed,
by whomsoever it may be done;
and that, rising above all strife and contention,
we may contemplate your eternal Truth and Goodness;
through Jesus Christ our Savior.  Amen.

            (Charles Kingsley: 1819-1875)

Day Five  June 8 Growing in Gratitude

Colossians 3: 15-17

Sing to God with gratitude in your hearts

Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you
have done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the
whole creation, for the beauty of this world, for the
wonder of life, and for the mystery of love.

We thank you for the blessing of family and friends,
and for the loving care which surrounds us on every side.

We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our
best efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments
which satisfy and delight us.

We thank you also for those disappointments and failures
that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.

Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ;
for the truth of his Word and the example of his life;
for his steadfast obedience, by which he overcome
temptation; for his dying, through which he overcame
death; and for his rising to life again, in which we are
raised to the life of your kingdom.

Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know
Christ and make him known; and through him, at all
times and in all places, may give thanks to you in all
things.  Amen.

            The Book of Common Prayer, page 836

Day Six  June 9 Growing in Service

Read I Peter 4:7-11

Serve one another with whatever gift each of you has received

O Lord,
open my eyes that I may see the need of others,
open my ears that I may hear their cries,
open my heart so that they need not be without succor.
Let me not be afraid to defend the weak
because of the anger of the strong,
nor be afraid to defend the poor
because of the anger of the rich.
Show me where love and hope and faith are needed,
and use me to bring them to these places.
Open my eyes and ears that I may, this coming day,
be able to do some work of peace for thee.  Amen.

Day Seven  June 10 Growing in Peace

Read Ephesians 2:13-22

For Christ Jesus himself is our peace

Lord, make us instruments of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let us sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is discord, union;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.
Grant that we may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.  Amen.

            (St. Francis of Assisi: 1181-1226
-as found in the Book of Common Prayer, page 883)

Day Eight June 11  Growing in All Ways into Christ

Ephesians 4:11-16

We must grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ.

Christ be with me,
            Christ within me,
Christ behind me,
            Christ before me,
Christ beside me,
            Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me,
Christ beneath me,
            Christ above me,
Christ in quiet,
            Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all that love me,
            Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.  Amen.

            (St. Patrick: 390-460 – as found in The Hymnal 1982)

Forecast

July 4, 2004
Cloudy, heavy clouds beg to rain
yet there falls only the dim light of silence.
Hush, my people.
Send forth no fireworks today.
Better, we join the clouds in Quaker fashion.
Better, our celebrations rise up as prayers—
moving over land and sea to cover
all those who still seek peace,
all those still at war for freedom.

Jesus said,
“Take up the cross and follow me.”
Today, the day we call Independence Day,
we are grateful for all the rights and liberties that we have.
Many of us have never known oppression or hunger.
We have not roamed the woods in fear of bombs or enemies.

But what we do know is
that there continues to be great suffering in this world.

Can we ease such pain only by heaping more upon it?
This is our cross.
This is the burden we must bear in these times.

Many sons and daughters will die this day—
this quiet, cloudy Sunday.
Some till die for freedom.
Some will die for peace.
In the end…someone—
some mysterious someone—will declare it over.
And we will gather our dead.
And they will gather theirs.
And mother earth will cradle them all.

We cannot make it rain today.
We cannot force the angry rumblings
of thunder to give us what we need.
What we can do is love~
gather in love, follow in love, give love~
with outstretched hands and tender hearts
beneath this sky, this Heaven that waits for us all.

Look!
Here comes the rain!

Kathy Fuller Guisewite  July 4, 2004.

Given Permission

I love sitting in the silence
with You, God.
I love being so still that
     my very heartbeat slows,
     my breathing unlabored.
If I tell my body to rest in You,
give permission, really,
perhaps my mind will join as well.
Permission~
the world so needs this…
permission to be in God,
permission to embrace the goodness
of rest, pace, and quiet.
No wonder the world’s gone mad.
How will we ever
find peace in the world,
bring peace to this world
if the water of our own soul
never stills
in the steadiness of You?
Peace.   Be still.  Breathe.
Let go.  Amen.

Kathy Fuller Guisewite

A Prayer for World Day of Prayer

What is it that you need today?

If it is comfort…
then I will pray for you a quiet walk in a deep, mossy wood.
Soil and bark so familiar with change will meet you there,
will mend you there.

If it is hope…
then I will pray for you a cloudless sky,
so blue, so pristine that every vision of possibility
will be painted in your heart.

If it is food…
then I will pray for you an outstretched hand,
one that understands your need.
I will pray for the wisdom that will someday overcome
the emptiness of hunger.
May there come to you, this day, a bowl of something warm
that will nourish your body and your mind.

If it is joy…
then I will pray for you a remembrance
that will make you smile~
a magically funny moment flown back to you like
some winged gift from the past…
lifting you up from where you now stand.

If it is healing…
then I will pray for you the most beautiful days~
full of hands to hold you and music that will bathe your wounds.
I will pray for you nights of deep, restful sleep where angels
nestle in your dreams and
wrap themselves about your pain.

If it is love…
then surely I will pray for you…all that I can…
for each of us understands the yearning to be cared for,
to be valued,
to be treasured in someone’s eyes.
May the Spirit who is love whisper
inside you like a spring wind~
renewing the truth you have had since birth.
You are created in the image of Love.

And if it is peace,
if it is peace…
then I will pray
for us all.
Amen. Amen.

            Kathy Fuller Guisewite

O God, My Mother

Come, my child, what is it you must say to me?

I have this yearning to call you Mama.
All my life,
I have know You as Father,
but now that I’m all grown up,
I find
this need to know you as Mother.
Would that be okay?

Yes, my child.  See me as you need to see me.

I need to know Your softness…
to be able to lean my head into Your curves
and feel You feminine hand
stroke my hair.
I need to know that I am indeed
created in Your image and
that Your heart understands the
feminine beating of mine.
I need to know that You value me as a female just as
much as You value all those masculine souls
my church has taught me to love.

I see you, my daughter.  I know you.  I love you.
Trust that I am as much you…as you are Me.
Trust that I made you
from My wild and vivid imagination
and that all of it is good.
When you care, I care.  When you bleed, I bleed also.
Every time you give birth…be it to children
or beauty or compassion…
I feel your labor pains, and I will cool your brow.

I will be your Mother as well as your Fahter.
I will be your bread and your wine.
I will stand with you in the sunlight and
steady you in the dark.

Who I am…is who I am~
and who you are is who you are~
and who we are together is life…
lovely, lovely life.

            Kathy Fuller Guisewite

Be Still and Know

Today is a good day to be quiet.
It is grey and damp,
cool and calming.
The breeze is just enough
to nod the branches of new green~
reminding me to yield, to bend,
to give myself freely
to the unseen Mystery that is.
Should anyone ask me what I did today…
I shall tell them that I was quiet.

I shall tell them that I was quiet enough
to hear the robin’s wings as she returned
to her nest~
the nest I delighted in watching her
thoughtfully create a few weeks ago.

I shall tell them that the bumblebees seem
to prefer the rose-colored azaleas
to the soft pink ones,
and that I was drawn to the sound of their hum
as they danced.

I shall tell them that no sight could be more
breathtaking
than to look up from this scrawled upon paper
to a burst of sunlight on a lawn of green.

I am transfixed and transformed.

I am newly colored in this reflection of life
from whence I came.

I am about living,
about breathing,
about being.

Should someone ask…
I shall tell them how important it is
to be present,
to be open,
to free one’s soul
and say “yes” to one’s Spirit.

God is very near.
Rest in the grass, and imagine the
creation of green.
Hold the faces of flowers in your hands,
and see the Creator’s dreams.
Feel the magic of whirligigs,
and embrace the hope of every little seed.
Get your strength from the weeds,
and your comfort from
the steadiness and steadfastness of
brown earth.

In the quiet of this day…
God is here,
and
I am here~
and it is enough.

            Kathy Fuller Guisewite

Campfires

Day turns to night,
light to dark,
and I wonder…

Shouldn’t we all build a campfire in our backyard?
Shouldn’t we all slow down at the end of our day,
release our restless spirits,
and tend a fire?
Lay kindling tenderly.
Feel the textures of thin, twisted twigs
that will soon become energy and light.
They will become fire,
and as they do…

We should stand silently for a time
transfixed by the dancing light of a backyard campfire.

There in the glow of the unfettered light
we should remain
until our skin,
our spirits
are warmed and lifted as a spark…
or was that a firefly that now carries the
weight of my day
and raises my eyes Heavenward?

From the fire of this darkened earth,
through air and space,
to stars in a darkened galaxy…

Are we not called
to the light,
to create light,
to become light?

Perhaps if each of us could just
build a campfire at the end of our day,
and sleep for a night to the sound
of its crackling
and the stars twinkling…

And if we could
witness with our own eyes,
the rising of light out of darkness
the next morning…

We, like kindling, could become fire,
could become warmth,
could become light.

And somehow another living being might find
a spark of hope through us…

And somewhere another handful of kindling
might be laid,
and fireflies might be witnessed
soaring upward into the night.

            Kathy Fuller Guiswite

Mary’s Butterflies

This morning
I’ve been painting butterflies…
well cocooned in my house
where music and color
wash me whole
again.

I will push guilt to one of
my dusty corners
where it will remain
until Mary rests and
Martha returns.

I’m walking Mary these days.

Listening deep…
it is my greatest gift in these
moments of almost spring.
I hear rhythms
those around me have yet
to move to.
I hear questions more profound
than any answers yearn to be.
I hear peace
that I am becoming.

Is it not enough?
Is it not more?

Do butterflies flit from
yellows to pinks to blues
simply because they have wings,
or because…
dancing into beauty is at their core,
and music rests in the air
as dust on their wings?

Kathy Fuller Guisewite

Ground

I must creep very quietly
in this space
for it is unfamiliar
and leaves me feeling
like an intruder
on Another’s Ground. 
But this is not so—
no intruder am I.
My deepest self knows,
in soundless awe,
that this
is my ground
and that this,
my ground,
is God.

But hush, quit now,
lest I flee
in disbelief,
for I am not yet home
in God.
Hush, quiet now, until
in the lengthening
hours of night,
I make my home
here
in this sacred place.

            Edwina Gateley

Hymn to Gaea

Mother Earth’s sweet green fur,
or sun-bleached bones of sand
or red-parched skin of shale,
the children swimming in her blood—
marvelous manatee in gentle hospitality
or shy-singing whale,
coral, starfish and eel,
seahorse, plankton and pearl,
and land angels of elk,
eland, ibex and deer,
giraffe and lion and the beautiful bear,
foxglove, human child, and wonderful wolf,
and into infinity of stars I sing,
and I sing of them all, enthralled,
enraptured in you, Beloved One,
in all your creation,
every molecule a miracle.

            Alla Bozarth

God sent his son to save the world, not the church.  The church exists for one purpose and one purpose alone: to embody and to extend the reconciling and boundary-crossing love of God which is the fundamental energy that gives life to the world and is the still point in which everything lives and moves and has its being.

            Frank Griswold, former Presiding Bishop

The sap of spring is beginning to rise in the trees.  Growth is like that: invisible at first, then seeming to arrive in a sudden crescendo of green.  But the secret of growth rests in invisible times such as these.  The world is still gray with winter, but spring has secretly begun.

Within ourselves, too, we must learn to labor through the silent nights and winters of our lives, times when nothing seems to come to fruition, when we encounter only disappointment and disdain.  For the inner work we do during these times is what creates the environment for growth on which others later remark.  Keep faith during the wintry times, and spring will surely follow.

In Hebrew scripture, one of the most powerful figures, Wisdom—called Hokkmah in the original language and Sophia in the Greek—is feminine.  She is the most important aspect of human life, the quality without which we would live like animals.  She is more important than riches or fame, than sensual pleasure or power.

Knowledge leads to Wisdom, but is not Wisdom herself.  And Wisdom leads, the Book of Proverbs tells us, to justice and to truth.  But as the ancient text makes clear, Wisdom is hard to find in the marketplaces of this world—the marketplace of ideas as well as products.  She must raise her voice to be heard over the din of commerce and competing interests.  Yet, if we pay attention, she is there.  She is still there, calling for us to listen and follow her to justice and to truth.

Patricia Monaghan in “The Goddess Companion: Daily Meditations on the Feminine Spirit”

All things in this creation exist within you, and all things in you exist in creation; there is no border between you and the closest things, and there is no distance between you and the farthest things, and all things from the lowest to the loftiest, from the smallest to the greatest, are within you as equal things.  In one atom are found all the elements of the earth; in one motion of the mind are found the motions of all the laws of existence; in one drop of water are found the secrets of all the endless oceans; in one aspect of you are found all the aspects of existence…[Thus] “Your life has no end, and you shall live forevermore.”

            Kahlil Gibran

The way you see people is the way you treat them and the way you treat them is what they become.

            Johann W. von Goethe in “Prayers for Healing”

Risen 

Burned by Fire,
Yet not consumed.
Cut by Fear,
Yet gives Forgiveness.
Ears that hear the truth.
Eyes that see the smallest beauty.
A mouth poised to deliver the Word.
These things fade not,
No matter how much time passes.
We will, as did he, pass on
To that place where children dance without pain.
There, an almost invisible being
With infinite love is waiting
With outstretched arms.
Run to him.
He is gone, but he is not dead.

He is risen!

            Mary Gados

When each day
is sacred

when each hour
is sacred

earth and you
space and you
bearing the sacred
through time

you’ll reach
the fields of light.

            Guillevic in “Prayers for Healing”

We are about to enter the 15^th millionth millennium of the universe.
We are about to enter the 4.5 millionth millennium of the earth.
We are about to enter the 4 millionth millennium of life.
We are about to enter the 2,600 millennium of humans.
We are about the enter the 3^rd millennium of the common era.

We are who we are today because of all that has existed before us.
We carry in our bodies and spirits the struggles and changes, joys and sorrows, loves and
hates that have occurred throughout all time.

We are called to live with the knowledge and awareness that we are part of all that is and
that our decisions have an affect of the quality of life for all beings.  We are called to live this connectedness that exists between all members of creation.  We are called to put our hands upon creation and speak to it in words and touch, telling it how lovely it is because it cannot remember.  We are called to remember loveliness for one another until each of us can remember, believe, and live in love.

You shall be free indeed
when your days are not
without a care nor your nights
without a want and a grief,
but rather when these things
girdle your life and
yet you rise above them
naked and unbound.

            Kahil Gibran from “Prayers for Healing”

I pray to the great Spiritual Power in which I live and move and have my being.  I pray to God.  I pray that we may at all times keep our minds open to new ideas and shun dogma; that we may grow in our understanding of the nature of all living beings and our connectedness with the natural world; that we may become ever more filled with generosity of spirit and true compassion and love for all life; that we may strive to heal the hurts that we have inflicted on nature and control our greed for material things, knowing that our actions are harming our natural world: that we may value each and every human being for who he is, for who she is, reaching to the spirit that is within, knowing the power of each individual to change the world.

I pray that we may learn the peace that comes with forgiving and the strength we gain in loving: that we may learn to take nothing for granted in this life; that we may learn to see and understand with our hearts; that we may learn to join in our being.

I pray for these things with humility; I pray because of the hope that is within me, and because of my faith in the ultimate triumph of the human spirit; I pray because of my love for Creation, and because of my trust in God.  I pray, above all, for peace throughout the world.