Readings from last week's Daily Contemplative Pauses
Monday, July 29th
Reading:
Awaken us, Christ, to your light.
Open our eyes to your presence.
Awaken us, Christ, to your love.
Open our hearts to your indwelling.
Awaken us, Christ, to your life.
Open our minds to your abiding.
Awaken us, Christ, to your purpose.
Open our wills to your guiding
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)
Tuesday, July 30th
Reading: "Praise the Beloved, Heart of all hearts!
We are blessed as we sing praises
To the Beloved
For as we give ourselves in love, So we receive love.
The Beloved abides in our heart, In every open heart that Welcomes Love... Yes, the Divine word is written on every heart-scroll, a guide to pilgrims along the way." – Nan Merrill, from her interpretation of "Psalm 147" in Psalms for Praying
Just be here, let go be here, keep within, within God’s heart (by Heather Ruce)
Wednesday, July 31st
Reading: “Letting Silence pervade all we do does work because it never separates itself from the world. Thus we do not make the practice of Silence exclusively into a soul work and go inward, nor exclusively a spiritual work to attain some goal on a spiritual path. The work is to be with Silence itself, and in so doing we are one with soul, spirit, body, and world. When practiced over time, we find it becomes possible to be with Silence in all that we do, and in our doing, our presence in the world works as a healing force.” Robert Sardello, Silence: The Mystery of Wholeness)
Thursday, August 1st
Reading: “In classic theological language we like to think of human beings as having "free will" — the ability to make conscious choices. But… human beings in the grip of their false self programs are totally and predictably mechanical… Inner awakening is basically about breaking this cycle, opening to a new infusion of self-restraint or awakened consciousness that knocks you loose from the downed electric wire of that crazy, volatile, emotional energy. It's about being able to make a separation, stepping back into a more spacious inner place so that the whole pattern doesn't just keep playing itself out mindlessly, stealing your vital life energy that can really be used for far better purposes.” — Cynthia Bourgeault, Centering Prayer and Inner Awakening, p.137
Chant: Sink into the taproot of your heart (by Heather Ruce)
Friday, August 2nd
Reading: “Our ordinary associations with the word purity are often a little sour. Purity we automatically take as something colorless, lifeless, dull. A depriving thing, negative. But how could that possibly be its meaning in the Scriptural sense? How is it to be understood as used in all Teachings? Surely not negatively. And how does it apply to me, this idea of purification? What in me must be purified? Not my body, which is an animal and therefore innocent by nature. It is my thoughts and my feelings in which begins a possibility of ascent and descent. I must connect the idea of purification with this.
Manure cannot ascend as long as it remains manure. But something growing can be fertilized by it. How can the manure in me be changed into fertilizer? How can it be purified?” — Annie Lou Staveley, The Plan is Good
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 3rd with Joy
Reading: All beings are words of God,
(we are) God’s music, God’s art.
Sacred Books are we, for the infinite camps in our souls.
Every act reveals The One and expands its Being.
I know that may be hard to comprehend.
All creatures are doing their best to help God birth
God’s own being.
Enough talk for the night. The One is laboring in me;
I need to be silent for a while,
worlds are forming in my heart.
— Meister Eckhart (words modified to be gender neutral)
Chant: purify my heart, purify my heart, let me rest in you (by Joy Andrews Hayter)
Sunday, August 4th
Reading: THE GROWING TREE
Rabbi Uri taught:
"A human is like a tree. If you stand in front of a tree and watch it incessantly to see how it grows and to see how much it has grown, you will see nothing at all. But tend to it at all times, prune the runners, and keep the vermin from it, and—all in good time-it will come into its growth. It is the same with humans: all that is necessary is for one to overcome one’s obstacles, and one will thrive and grow. But it is not right to examine one every hour to see how much has been added to one’s growth." — Martin Buber, Tales of the Hasidim: Later Masters, p. 148 (words modified to be gender neutral)
Chant: O Mercy, I entrust myself to you, that I may be transformed (by Suzanne Toolan RSM & Catherine Regan)
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