Yesterday during my centering prayer time, I noticed how hard and but yet how easy it is to choose love. Centering prayer is a practice of silence and stillness inviting God into my heart, allowing Him to do whatever He wishes. My job is to be open and surrender. I give up my agenda of wants or requests. I push away monkey brain thoughts as they arise. I ultimately get into a space of being.
Continue reading “Week Nine: Turning to God. Choosing Love”As I turn toward God, I’m making a statement to the divine, to the world, and to my soul. I’m saying that I’m called to a higher purpose and meaning. I am called to love.
Continue reading “Week Nine: Turning to God. Called to Love”
Barbara Holmes begins her book Joy Unspeakable with this evocative poem, tracing the thread of creative expression from the birth of the universe through the Christian Desert Mothers and Fathers (who were dark-skinned, though they’re often portrayed as white), through slavery and the continued oppression of people of color. I invite you to read the poem aloud, perhaps a couple times, searching for and finding your own unspeakable joy.
Joy Unspeakable
is not silent,
it moans, hums, and bends
to the rhythm of a dancing universe.
It is a fractal of transcendent hope,
a hologram of God’s heart,
a black hole of unknowing.
For our free African ancestors,
joy unspeakable is drum talk
that invites the spirits
to dance with us,
and tell tall tales by the fire.
For the desert Mothers and Fathers,
joy unspeakable is respite
from the maddening crowds,
And freedom from
“church” as usual.
For enslaved Africans during the
Middle Passage,
joy unspeakable is the surprise
of living one more day,
and the freeing embrace of death
chosen and imposed.
For Africans in bondage
in the Americas,
joy unspeakable is that moment of
mystical encounter
when God tiptoes into the hush arbor,
testifies about Divine suffering,
and whispers in our ears,
“Don’t forget,
I taught you how to fly
on a wing and a prayer,
when you’re ready
let’s go!”
Joy Unspeakable is humming
“how I got over”
after swimming safely
to the other shore of a swollen Ohio river
when you know that you can’t swim.
It is the blessed assurance
that Canada is far,
but not that far.
For Africana members of the
“invisible institution,” the
emerging black church,
joy unspeakable is
practicing freedom
while chains still chafe,
singing deliverance
while Jim Crow stalks,
trusting God’s healing
and home remedies,
prayers, kerosene,
and cow patty tea.
For the tap dancing, boogie woogie,
rap/rock/blues griots
who also hear God,
joy unspeakable is
that space/time/joy continuum thing
that dares us to play and pray
in the interstices of life,
it is the belief that the phrase
“the art of living”
means exactly what it says.
Sunday – Dead or Alive. Have you ever thought about if you are living dead or alive?
Monday – All I Need. How often do I look at the changing world around me, allowing it to create dis-ease in my mind or stir up fear in my heart?
Tuesday – Awesomeness. How awesome God is it that Your reign and glory trump everything here in this crazy chaotic world.
Wednesday – Safe and secure. “My soul shall be filled as with a banquet; with joyful lips, my mouth shall praise you. For you have been my strength, in the shadow of your wings I rejoice. My soul clings fast to you; your right hand upholds me”. Psalm 63 Antiphonal
Thursday – Solid Foundation. How do I live in the solid foundation of joy?
Friday – Presence. And a voice came from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.” Matthew 3:17
How many times do I make choices and assumptions based on my own design and flawed, limited perspective? I think I’m the one who needs to be doing something, not fully realizing that its not part of Your plan. As I grown in relationship with You, I hear and follow your promptings. You allow me to do things of Your will for the benefit of Your plan and to participate in Your grace. Oh, the joy my heart feels when I feel your presence and goodness in the divine flow.
Continue reading “Week Eight: Joy. Presence”How do I live in the solid foundation of joy? We’re promised that joy is one of the fruits of the Spirit, which means it’s a gift given to us—something supernaturally infused into our being. With that being said, I think that for many of us it resides deep down in the soul, not making the light of day. St. Teresa of Calcutta said that “joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.” So how do we grow in the virtue of joy? Lisa Brenninkmeyer states she has discovered three things that help her in this regard:
Continue reading “Week Eight: Joy. Solid Foundation”I want to savor Your presence, Your love and feel Your support and comfort. You hold me in Your right hand, and I am safe and secure. I am Yours, I am loved, I’m Your beloved. How a lover chases after her love – I seek to know You, rest with You, enjoy You, hold Your hand, praise You. I want to introduce You to everyone I know.
Continue reading “Week Eight: Joy. Safe and Secure”How awesome God is it that your reign and glory trump everything here in this crazy chaotic world. Your kingdom has the final authority. Your reign is supreme and eternal. It is only with you that our souls live forever.
Continue reading “Week Eight: Joy. Awesomeness”How often do I look at the changing world around me, allowing it to create dis-ease in my mind or stir up fear in my heart? The amount of uncertainty we face is at an all time high it seems, but is it really? Behind the thin veneer of what the world has taught me to think was secure, the covering has been removed and exposed. Our world is not secure or our stable ground, but we must remember that it is not meant to provide all that we need. The world is good as it was created out of God’s goodness, but it is not the prize of my eternal home.
Continue reading “Week Eight: Joy. All I Need.”Have you ever thought about if you are living dead or alive? Living is experiencing joy in our day despite our circumstances. It is knowing who we are and whose we are. We who live alive bless the Lord now and forever.
Continue reading “Week Eight: Joy. Dead or Alive.”You might find the goodness of hope by Reading with the Divine Presence from the Center for Action and Contemplation, where you can also find the source references.
Lectio divina is a contemplative way of reading and relating to Scripture and other sacred writings. The medieval monk Guigo II (d. 1188) names the four steps of this foundational contemplative practice:
One day when I was busy working with my hands I began to think about our spiritual work, and all at once four stages in spiritual exercise came into my mind: reading, meditation, prayer and contemplation. These make a ladder for monks by which they are lifted up from earth to heaven. It has few rungs, yet its length is immense and wonderful, for its lower end rests upon the earth, but its top pierces the clouds and touches heavenly secrets.
Continue reading “Hope: Looking for God’s Goodness and Weekly Reflection Summary”
Smitten With Goodness 