prayer

A prayer for Guidance: O God I ask you to be with me with this day. I don’t know what lies ahead of me today but I ask you to be with me. Give me the strength and courage to get through everything as best I can. Help me to see clearly the things that matter and the things that don’t. Help me to use every gift I have, remembering that it is from you. May your presence in my life give me a generous and open heart, making me an instrument of peace and love in whatever choice I make.

An Excerpt from One Square Inch of Silence: One Man’s Search for Natural Silence in a Noisy World by Gordon Hampton and John Grossman

Silence is not the absence of something but the presence of everything. It lives here, profoundly, at One Square Inch in the Hoh Rain Forest. 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.”

Ascension

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them.  When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted.  And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them [...]

Tornadoes

April, 2011. The U.S. South has felt the brunt of a catastrophic series of tornadoes which have taken the lives of 300 people and counting. Meteorologists have reported over 900 tornadoes since the beginning of the month

And so we pray this news.

God says I was there with you
in the howling of the tornado
and the shaking of your house,
and now I will be there with you
wherever you go next.

Easter Blessing

 May your heart lift with love’s warmth, the strength found in prayer, the truth of new life. May spring bring to mind God’s great desire for your renewal and growth. May you rest in the grace of care and compassion that last beyond time. May Christ’s life, the energy of God, wrap you in Easter blessing. (explorefaith)

Holy Tuesday

Collect of the Day: Holy Tuesday O God, by the passion of your blessed Son you made an instrument of shameful death to be for us the means of life: Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of your Son our [...]

4 Lent Collect

Collect of the Day: Holy Tuesday O God, by the passion of your blessed Son you made an instrument of shameful death to be for us the means of life: Grant us so to glory in the cross of Christ, that we may gladly suffer shame and loss for the sake of your Son our [...]

prayer of the day

God, today we remember those who are still unemployed and those who have recently lost jobs. May they endure during this time of uncertainty, knowing that each day remains a greater gift than the one before. Amen (sojourners)

Franciscan Benediction

“May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart. May God bless you with an anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom, and peace. May God bless you with tears to shed [...]

World AIDS Day 2010

On the first day of December, people around the world pause to remember World AIDS Day. Christians remember all who live with HIV and AIDS, and all who have died, at the same time we begin the season of Advent. We search for a healer and a hope-giver as we prepare for the coming of the Redeemer. One of the traditional prophetic readings for the season says:

While gentle silence enveloped all things,
and night in its swift course was now half gone,
[God’s]all-powerful word leaped from heaven, from the royal throne,
into the midst of the land that was doomed. [Wisdom 18:14-15, NRSV]

The magnificent contrasts of this ancient vision – silence pierced by the Word, doom cast out by new life – seem a fitting frame for reflecting on the challenges and opportunities confronting us on World AIDS Day 2010.