Readings week of March 24th.

Readings from last week's Daily Contemplative Pauses

*All previous readings & reflections can be found here*

Monday, March 24th 

Reading: “Our word "courage" comes form the French word coeur, "heart." Courage is a willingness to act from the heart, to let your heart lead the way, not knowing what will be required of you next, and if you can do it.” — Jean Shinoda Bolen, Gods in Everyman

Tuesday, March 25th

Reading: “Take great care to restrain your tongue and be circumspect. Let only discretion and charity open your mouth. And practice the advice of all the Saints to break silence only with words that are worth more than silence. Silence is one of the most certain signs that God dwells in a soul.” — Edith Wallace

Wednesday, March 26th

Reading: “How can we discern the true freedom of our soul, the freedom in which everything is given, from the promises and practices of personal liberation? Mystics who have given themselves to love know what is beyond the borders of culture and conditioning. They inhabit a region of the soul where love and service are given freely and there is neither striving nor achievement. Living a relationship of oneness, they recognize that the deepest longing of their heart belongs not to themselves but to their Beloved... Belonging neither to this world or the next, they are servants of love and carry the wisdom that comes from a commitment to love.” — Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee, The Signs of God

Chant: spirit of Truth open my mind, soul of Wisdom open my Heart

Thursday, March 27th 

Reading: “In spiritual maturity, the opposite of injustice is not justice, but compassion. Not me against you, not me straightening out the present ill, fighting to gain a just result for myself and others, but compassion, a life that goes against nothing and fulfills everything.” — Charlotte Joko Beck, Nothing Special 

Friday, March 28th

Chant: Let the love that dwells in your hearts, shine forth in your deeds…(by Poor Clare’s of Arundel) 

Saturday, March 29th

Chant: All who labor, come to me, all who are weary, come to me, I am gentle, I am humble, I will give you, give you rest (by Poor Clare’s of Arundel)

Sunday, March 30th with Catherine

Reading: Unison Benediction by May Sarton, Collected Poems 1930-1993

Return to the most human,

nothing less will nourish the torn spirit,

the bewildered heart,

he angry mind:

and from the ultimate duress,

pierced with the breath of anguish,

speak of love.

Return, return to the deep sources,

nothing less will teach the stiff hands a new way to serve,

to carve into our lives the forms of tenderness

and still that ancient necessary pain preserve.

Return to the most human,

nothing less will teach the angry spirit,

the bewildered heart;

the torn mind,

to accept the whole of its duress,

and pierced with anguish…at last, act for love.

Chant: Sink into the taproot of your heart

← Previous Post

Next Post →