Readings from last week's Daily Contemplative Pauses with Heather
*All previous readings & reflections can be found here*
Monday, January 6th
Reading: Wise Women Also Came by Jan Richardson
Wise women also came.
The fire burned in their wombs long before they saw
the flaming star in the sky.
They walked in shadows,
trusting the path
would open under the light of the moon.
Wise women also came,
seeking no directions,
no permission from any king.
They came by their own authority,
their own desire,
their own longing.
They came in quiet,
spreading no rumors,
sparking no fears to lead to innocents’ slaughter,
to their sister Rachel’s inconsolable lamentations.
Wise women also came,
and they brought useful gifts:
water for labor’s washing,
fire for warm illumination,
a blanket for swaddling.
Wise women also came,
at least three of them,
holding Mary in the labor,
crying out with her in the birth pangs,
breathing ancient blessings into her ear.
Wise women also came,
and they went,
as wise women always do,
home a different way.
Chant: O sacred three, encircle me
Tuesday, January 7th
Reading: “Epiphany is the Christian celebration of what our brothers and sisters in other religions call enlightenment. Enlightenment is the inward realization and consciousness of being identified with who we really are. We are not our false selves or egos….Kiss them goodbye. They have no future. We have to have an ego in some degree to function in this life, but the most important aspect of our life is the epiphany or revelation of God that is going on all the time in the details of life. We know that a subatomic particle is in relation to the wave from which it comes, and that we are localized expressions or manifestations of the wave from which we come. We call our wave God, which is like a kind of nickname because there is no word for this primordial wave. It just is, is, is – ISING without any limitation at all. If we have any existence at all, we must be present to and penetrated by this presence.” — Thomas Keating, Epiphany, the Feast of Contemplatives A Homily
Chant: Blessed is the one who turns around and awakens, blessed is the one who opens blinded eyes (by Epiphany Today)
Wednesday, January 8th
Reading: For Those Who Have Far to Travel An Epiphany Blessing by Jan Richardson
If you could seethe journey whole,
you might never
undertake it,
might never dare
the first step
that propels you
from the place
you have known
toward the place
you know not.
Call it
one of the mercies
of the road:
that we see it
only by stages
as it opens
before us,
as it comes into
our keeping,
step by
single step.
There is nothing
for it
but to go,
and by our going
take the vows
the pilgrim takes:
to be faithful to
the next step;
to rely on more
than the map;
to heed the signposts
of intuition and dream;
to follow the star
that only you
will recognize;
to keep an open eye
for the wonders that
attend the path;
to press on
beyond distractions,
beyond fatigue,
beyond what would
tempt you
from the way.
There are vows
that only you
will know:
the secret promises
for your particular path
and the new ones
you will need to make
when the road
is revealed
by turns
you could not
have foreseen.
Keep them, break them,
make them again;
each promise becomes
part of the path,
each choice creates
the road
that will take you
to the place
where at last
you will kneel
to offer the gift
most needed—the gift that only you
can give—before turning to go
home by
another way.
Thursday, January 9th
Reading: "The weather has been awful,
The countryside is dreary,
Marsh, jungle, rock; and echoes mock,
Calling our hope unlawful;
But a silly song can help along
Yours ever and sincerely:
At least we know for certain that we are three old sinners,
that this journey is much too long, that we want our dinners,
and miss our wives, our books, our dogs,
but we have only the vaguest idea why we are what we are.
To discover how to be human now
Is the reason we follow the star."
— W.H. Auden, For the Time Being/ W.H. Auden Collected Poems
Friday, January 10th
Reading: The Well of Grief by David Whyte
Those who will not slip
below the still surface of the well of Grief
turning down through its black water
to the place we cannot breath
will never know the source from which we drink,
the secret water, cold and clear,
nor find in the darkness glimmering
the small round coins
thrown by those who wished for something else.
Chant: sink into the taproot of your heart (by Heather Ruce)
Saturday, January 11th
to love what death will touch
to love what could abandon us
is to accept these rites of Grief
is to open up to vulnerability
nothing ever stays the same
nothing ever stays the same
nothing ever stays the same
everything is change
everything is change
Sunday, January 12th
Reading: “Centering Prayer begins as an inward practice, moving us more and more deeply into our relationship with God, ourselves and others. Over time, it turns outward and changes daily life. This is an imperceptible shift of awareness that is apprehended in silence and is then applied everywhere else. We are fine-tuned in the silence, by the silence, and our awareness and attentiveness is sharpened in the stillness of our being. As we open, we see beyond seeing and hear beyond hearing, available to a new depth of existence. There is an acute sense of aliveness all around us.
“The deepening commitment to the regular practice of Centering Prayer can help us to understand what it means to make a commitment and stick with it. The discipline of prayer, of showing up to our relationship with God… whether we feel like it or not, becomes a stabilizing influence that begins to manifest in other commitments. How do we develop a deepening commitment through Centering Prayer? Simply by practice! Daily practice evolves and matures through our willingness to consent, one consent at a time, like baby steps! Let’s take a look at how consent moves into commitment. Keep in mind that we exercise our consent by our return to the sacred symbol; our consent is a simple yes to our intention to be in relationship with God and to grow in that relationship. These consents seem to follow a certain pattern or rhythm on the journey.” — Gail Fitzpatrick-Hopler, A Glimpse of God
Chant: Listen, listen wait in silence listening to the one from whom all mercy flows
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