Readings from last week's Daily Contemplative Pauses
Monday, August 19th with Catherine
Reading: 'I Go Among Trees' by Wendell Berry
I go among trees and sit still.
All my stirring becomes quiet around me
like circles on water.
My tasks lie in their places where I left them
asleep like cattle.
Then what is afraid of me comes
and lives a while in my sight.
What it fears in me leaves me
and the fear of me leaves it.
It sings and I hear its song.
Then what I am afraid of comes.
I live for a while in its sight.
What I fear in it leaves it
and the fear of it leaves me.
It sings and I hear its song.
Tuesday, August 20th with Catherine
Reading: 'Making the House Ready for the Lord' by Mary Oliver
Dear Lord, I have swept and I have washed but
still nothing is as shining as it should be
for you. Under the sink, for example, is an
uproar of mice – it is the season of their
many children. What shall I do? And under the eaves
and through the walls the squirrels
have gnawed their ragged entrances – but it is the season
when they need shelter, so what shall I do? And
the raccoon limps into the kitchen and opens the cupboard
while the dog snores, the cat hugs the pillow;
what shall I do? Beautiful is the new snow falling
in the yard and the fox who is staring boldly
up the path, to the door. And still I believe you will
come, Lord: you will, when I speak to the fox,
the sparrow, the lost dog, the shivering sea-goose, know
that really I am speaking to you whenever I say,
as I do all morning and afternoon: Come in, Come in.
Wednesday August 21st with Chris
Reading: "I said to the wanting-creature inside me:What is this river you want to cross?There are no travelers on the river-road, and no road.Do you see anyone moving about on that bank, or nesting?There is no river at all, and no boat, and no boatman.There is no tow rope either, and no one to pull it.There is no ground, no sky, no time, no bank, no ford!And there is no body, and no mind!Do you believe there is some place that will make thesoul less thirsty?In that great absence you will find nothing.Be strong then, and enter into your own body;there you have a solid place for your feet.Think about it carefully!Don't go off somewhere else!Kabir says this: just throw away all thoughts ofimaginary things,and stand firm in that which you are." — The Kabir Book: Forty Four of the Ecstatic Poems of Kabir, Translation by Robert Bly. Beacon Press, Boston, 1993.
In the midst of hate, I found there was,
within me, an invincible love.
In the midst of tears, I found there was,
within me, an invincible joy.
In the midst of chaos, I found there was,
within me, an invincible calm.
In the midst of winter, I found there was,
within me, an invincible summer.
— Albert Camus
Chant: Be right here, in the Heart of God (Henry Schoenfield)
Thursday, August 22nd
Reading: "Descend into the heart"... "Discover the place of the heart." "Unite your nous," your intellect, within your heart. These phrases mean that we should strive for integration in Christ. Enter into relationship with your deep self. Discover the true dimensions of your personhood. Realize yourself as created in the Divine image. Find God in the profundity of yourself.” — Kallistos Ware, Bishop of Diokleia
Chant: descend into the heart (Heather Ruce)
Friday, August 23rd with Heather
Reading: “Within the heart, Macarius' unfathomable depths correspond in some ways to what we now call the unconscious, those aspects of ourselves that we do not yet know. "Within the heart," he writes, "there are unfathomable depths; there are reception rooms and bedchambers within it, doors and porches and many offices and passages. In it is the workshop of righteousness; in it is the workshop of [iniquity]. In it is death, and in it is life." So the heart is the place where both [corruption] and good dwell - the battleground, the moral center. "The heart is Christ's palace: there is God, there are the angels, there are life and the kingdom, there are light and the apostles, the heavenly cities and the treasures of grace; all things are there." So see how the heart, for Macarius, is an all-inclusive symbol of wholeness, and above all, it is the place of Divine indwelling. It is the place where our human personhood becomes transparent to the Divine, where I experience myself as God-sourced, God-enfolded, where God is at work within me. So the heart is open, both below and above. It is open below, to the abyss of the subconscious, and it is open above to the abyss of Divine grace.” —Kallistos Ware, Bishop of Diokleia
Chant: Awaken o my heart, Awaken o my heart, so I can move into the larger mind, for the kingdom is at hand (by Tony Martin)
Saturday, August 24th with Tom
Reading: "The third type of fear Julian describes is the fear of inadequacy, of not-enoughness, of not being up to the tasks and challenges of life. Clearly there is some early and deep wounding and programming — something to be healed. And as you let go of some of these “thoughts” in the quiet of your prayer, and simply return to the sacred symbol, the ripple effect starts converting you from American cheese to Swiss cheese. You begin to be permeable, to have some holes in you so that transformation can happen. The journey of the contemplative is one of opening, healing, self-inquiry, allowing the self to be unpacked, opened, changed, available to new possibilities from the living God.
Julian’s fourth aspect of fear is “reverential fear,” which really means being in awe of God, being just overwhelmed with the Ultimate Mystery. On a human level, we might compare this awe with the feeling of being adored, appreciated to our core, loved so much – it’s an amazing feeling. It might be overwhelming to receive this much love and attention. My grandpa, my mother's dad, was a shoemaker. And every time we went to visit him, we had our same little routine. I would go into the shoemaker shop, and my grandpa would put down his tools immediately and he would say, “Carlo! Carlo! Come here! Come here! Come here!” And I, as a chubby Italian kid, would wobble over and grandpa would pick me up so my little feet would be dangling. He would squeeze me and kiss me. “I love you! I love you! I love you!” And he would put me down, and then I would say to him (it was our ritual every time), “Grandpa! Grandpa! Why do you do 6 that to me all the time?” And this is God talking to you, and God talking to me: “I love you so much! I want you to be part of me!” That's reverential fear. That’s awe, that’s love that never ends. And that's what Julian is talking about. — Fr. Carl Arico, Contemplative Outreach Newsletter, July 2024
Chant: This day, I will sing your praise (by Tom Amsberry)
Sunday, August 25th with Chris
Reading: THE POWER TO CHANGE by Jeff Foster
Sometimes you reach the end of your tether.
You've been fighting to change something for so long.
Now, you realize that it will not change.
Not today, anyway.
And maybe not tomorrow.
So you begin to accept it, even love it, as it is, now.
You bow to its present existence.
Your resistance melts away.
You remember that your inner peace
is not dependent
on change or lack of change.
Your peace is changeless with the seasons.
And then, mysteriously,
held in this non-resistant love,
feeling no pressure from you to change,
cradled in deep acceptance,
the thing begins to change.
And you bow to it again.
Sometimes powerlessness holds great power.
The mind is not in charge of change.
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