According to the Christian liturgical calendar we are now in what is considered the long green season of Ordinary Time. It is a time to take a pause from observing the many significant days throughout the rich seasons of the liturgical year beginning in Advent going through Pentecost. It is a time to lean into faith, hope, and love. It is a time to get on with the work and service of the path of love that we walk. This season of Ordinary Time also falls during summer when the days are longer and we may tend to make more of an effort to play, rest, take a trip, spend time with cherished ones, etc. It is a natural time to make space for ease and integration, to allow our practice to take different shapes and forms, and rather than forgetting the life we are committed to live, allowing it to deepen in the ordinary marrow of our lives. It is during this season that we tend to feel our typical rhythms get off kilter, so it is good to consider how you might weave reminders into your days to remember who you are beyond the typical identifications of this world, that you are anchored in something beyond the circumstances of this world, and that we are tethered to each other in this recognition (along with so many others who have gone before us and are to come).
Faith, Hope and Love,
Heather
From the Daily Contemplative Pauses
Monday with Heather
"...Jesus, the living master, is real, alive, intimately and vibrantly enfolding you right now. He is more present, in fact, than even your breath and your heartbeat. But to really know this presence you need to tune in on a different wavelength: to shift from your usual binary operating system to the heart frequency where this Jesus connection broadcasts. Wisdom Christianity is practice-driven. When you do the practices that nurture the heart, you will sense this connection as a living bond. Your being becomes receptive to the higher meaning. When the practices that sustain this encounter begin to drop out, you revert back to your usual operating system, and the connection fades.
In other words, you are the vessel, the instrument that receives the wisdom. As you attune and fine-tune your instrument, you will know. It's not knowing something more, like a new fact of piece of esoteric information; it's knowing deeper, knowing with more and more of your being engaged."
— Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Jesus, p. 136 -137
Tuesday with Heather
Six gestures with italicized words said aloud words by Joyce Rupp from her book Out of the Ordinary:
1. "I thank you, Holy One, for the gift of another day of life" (stretch your arms high and wide above your head): I offer the Creator praise and gratitude
2. "I reach out in compassion to my sisters and brothers throughout the universe" (hold arms out from your sides, a little below shoulder height. Pivot to the left and to the right with your arms stretching outward toward the cosmos): I intentionally become aware of my spiritual bond with all of creation
3. "I give to you all I am and all I have" (stretch your arms out straight in front of you, slightly apart, palms up): I offer my life to the Holy One
4. "I open my entire being to receive the gift that you have waiting for me in this new day" (pull your hands close together and cup them as container): I open to accept what the Holy One offers me this day
5. "I touch this planet, Earth, with awe, reverence, and gratitude, promising to care well for her today" (bend over, reach down, and touch the floor, or better yet, the ground, if you are outside): I will remember to be kind to our planet Earth
6. "May I be united with you throughout this day, aware of your love strengthening me and shining through me. Amen." (stand up, cross hands over your heart, and bow to the waist): I am aware of the indwelling presence of the Holy One
Wednesday with Heather
“...tell us about matter. Will it survive or not?
The Savior answered:
All of nature with its forms and creatures exist together and are interwoven with each other. They will be resolved back, however, to their own proper origin, for the compositions of matter return to the original roots of their nature. Those who have ears, let them hear this.”
― from Dialogue I, The Gospel of Mary Magdalene
Thursday with Heather
“In various traditions the witness has been identified with “Real I,” “the true self,” and “essential being,” but all of this naming misses the point. Witnessing is, if anything, a verb: an innate capacity of human consciousness to be present to itself as a field of awareness. Though personal, it is not a person—not an other—but a subtle capacity of consciousness itself, so far as we know gifted to the human species alone. Its purpose seems to be to keep track simultaneously of the horizontal axis—our life in time—and the pure divine awareness that is always intersecting this axis.”
― Cynthia Bourgeault, The Heart of Centering Prayer: Nondual Christianity in Theory and Practice
Friday with Heather
“What has become clear to me is the powerful role grief plays in enabling us to face what is taking place in our lives, our communities, our ecologists, families, and culture. Through our ability to acknowledge the layers of loss, we can truly discover our capacity to respond, to protect, and to restore what has been damaged. Grief registers the sorrows that befall everything that matters deeply to our souls. Our hearts are kept flexible, fluid, and open to the world through this closeness with loss.”
— Francis Weller
Sunday with Joy
"It Acts Like Love"
It acts like love - music -
it reaches toward the face, touches it, and tries to let you know
His promise: that all will be okay.
It acts like love - music and,
tells the feet, "You do not have to be so burdened."
My body is covered with wounds this world made,
but I still longed to kiss Him, even when God said,
"Could you also kiss the hand that caused each scar,
for you will not find me until you do."
It does that - music - help us
to forgive.
— Rabia of Basra (c.717-801), translated by Daniel Ladinsky
Comments