Inspirations

~Washington Matthews

Compline

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown, remembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning;
At the source of the longest river
The voice of the hidden waterfall
And the children in the apple-tree
Not known, because not looked for
But heard, half.heard,
in the stillness
Between two waves of the sea.
Quick now, here, now, always –
A condition of complete simplicity
(Costing not less than everything)
And all shall be well and
All manner of things shall be well
When the tongues of flames are in-folded
Into the crowned knot of fire
And the fire and rose are one.
~ T.S. Eliot

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~ Jane Yolen

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April 21, 2020

A Great Pilgrimage

I felt in need of a great pilgrimage

so I sat still for three days

and God came to me. 

~ Author Kabir

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April 20, 2020

Spirit of Comfort and Longing

Spirit of comfort and longing,

enfold my fear,

unclothe me of my pride,

unfold my thoughts,

uncomplicate my heart,

and give me surrender:

that I may tell my wounds,

lay down my work,

and greet the dark.

~ Janet Morley

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April 13, 2020

How the Virus Stole Easter

 By Kristi Bothur

 (With a nod to Dr. Seuss)

 

Twas late in ‘19 when the virus began

 Bringing chaos and fear to all people, each land.

 

People were sick, hospitals full,

 Doctors overwhelmed, no one in school.

 

As winter gave way to the promise of spring,

 The virus raged on, touching peasant and king.

 

People hid in their homes from the enemy unseen.

 They YouTubed and Zoomed, social-distanced, and cleaned.

 

April approached and churches were closed.

 “There won’t be an Easter,” the world supposed.

 

“There won’t be church services, and egg hunts are out.

 No reason for new dresses when we can’t go about.”

 

Holy Week started, as bleak as the rest.

 The world was focused on masks and on tests.

 

“Easter can’t happen this year,” it proclaimed.

 “Online and at home, it just won’t be the same.”

 

Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, the days came and went.

 The virus pressed on; it just would not relent.

 

The world woke Sunday and nothing had changed.

 The virus still menaced, the people, estranged.

 

“Pooh pooh to the saints,” the world was grumbling.

 “They’re finding out now that no Easter is coming.

 

“They’re just waking up! We know just what they’ll do!

 Their mouths will hang open a minute or two,

 And then all the saints will all cry boo-hoo.

 

“That noise,” said the world, “will be something to hear.”

 So it paused and the world put a hand to its ear.

 

And it did hear a sound coming through all the skies.

 It started down low, then it started to rise.

 

But the sound wasn’t depressed.

 Why, this sound was triumphant!

 It couldn’t be so!

 But it grew with abundance!

 

The world stared around, popping its eyes.

 Then it shook! What it saw was a shocking surprise!

 

Every saint in every nation, the tall and the small,

 Was celebrating Jesus in spite of it all!

 

It hadn’t stopped Easter from coming! It came!

 Somehow or other, it came just the same!

 

And the world with its life quite stuck in quarantine

 Stood puzzling and puzzling.

 “Just how can it be?”

 

“It came without bonnets, it came without bunnies,

 It came without egg hunts, cantatas, or money.”

 

Then the world thought of something it hadn’t before.

 “Maybe Easter,” it thought, “doesn’t come from a store.

 Maybe Easter, perhaps, means a little bit more.”

 

And what happened then?

 Well….the story’s not done.

 What will YOU do?

 Will you share with that one

 Or two or more people needing hope in this night?

 Will you share the source of your life in this fight?

 

The churches are empty – but so is the tomb,

 And Jesus is victor over death, doom, and gloom.

 

So this year at Easter, let this be our prayer,

 As the virus still rages all around, everywhere.

 

May the world see hope when it looks at God’s people.

 May the world see the church is not a building or steeple.

 May the world find Faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection,

 May the world find Joy in a time of dejection.

 May 2020 be known as the year of survival,

 But not only that –

 Let it start a revival!!

 

Good Friday – April 10, 2020
‘I thirst’ (John 19:29 KJB/AV)

“I thirst

The heat of the midday sun beats back
from the bare rocks of this hilltop,
from the bleached wood of this cross.
The last time this man saw water
was when Pilate washed the blood-guilt from his hands.
The last time it passed these cracked lips
was at table with his friends –
who have now run away like raindrops into the thirsty earth.

I thirst

He imagines water flowing down a river-bed
after the spring rains, when the land is green
where trees grow at the water’s edge,
and – watched by kingfishers in their branches and by crowds from the city alone the bank –
two men wade into the Jordan,
waist deep in the still unpolluted waters.
John cupped his hand and raised it,
a rosary of bright drops falling as he poured water over this head that is now beaded with blood.
Then the dove came down out of a clear heaven
and a voice proclaimed, “this is my beloved son…”
But now the only words under the empty sky are

I thirst

‘Son,’ said his mother at the wedding,
‘there is no wine left!’
And he laughed, ‘what’s that to me?’
But now, when his hour has come, he remembers
that in the courtyard there stood six stone water jars –
huge and full to the brim with cool pure water –
and that he sent the servants
to draw all the wine that they wanted –
to quench everyone’s thirst,
enliven the party and celebrate human love.
That was a sign, water into wine,
just as much as the voice from heaven.
folk said then that the host had left the best till last.
but at last, for the man on the cross, water will do.

I thirst

‘Give me a drink,’ he had said
to the woman at the well outside the city,
her look mingled wonder and mockery.
‘You, a Jewish man, ask for a drink from
Samaritan woman?’
So many prejudices, prohibitions, dangers
of misunderstanding.
Water was the only simple thing.
He remembers how thirsty he was,
sitting there by the well.
She drew water out of its depths,
the bucket overflowing, splashing, echoing,
precious water coming up dark and then flashing gold as she poured it out in the sunshine.
The traveler drank his fill,
letting if caress his throat, grinning in gratitude,
splashing it on his face, his hands, his dusty feet,
making free with the water that was her gift.
Then the talk turned to living water –
a gift to her she didn’t, at first, understand.
But she had understood his human need:

I thirst

His friends hadn’t understood,
when he took the basin and the towel
and washed their feet.
The upper room was filled with baffled silence,
the slip-slop of water, words of protest,
uncertain laughter. but his gentle hands

turned a routine task into a sing of caring:
the water blessed them, brought them together.
Though they drank wine that night,
for some the water was what they remembered:
the washing, the water poured out for them.
And it went on flowing through their lives.
As his life ebbs, he calls out again

I thirst

The soldiers raise a sponge soaked in sour wine, vinegar to his parches lips. it is sharp
as the barbed wire and the minefields along
the Jordan;
as cheap as booze which people drink to forget
and as stale as a marriage the doesn’t work out;
as bitter as the divisions between men and women,
rich and poor, races, different faiths;
it silences the cry for justice
and it leaves a bad taste in the mouth;
it is as numbing as our guilt, as our fear of being loved.

This man’s life was living water. Is this the last word?

I thirst” 

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Maundy Thursday – April 9

Prayer before going to church on Maundy Thursday

­

“I will walk in the wind

to meet you Jesus

to let you wash my feet.

I don’t want to.

I would rather stay here in the warm,

away from your towels and water

and offers of forgiveness,

for I know what you mean,

what you ask,

what you give.

 

But I will come,

for I cannot stay here alone,

and I cannot run elsewhere,

for I know that you are waiting,

welcoming.

And I know that only you

can heal me and hold me.

 

So I will come

with empty hands to your supper,

empty hands and dirty feet.

I will come as your guest

and with water, bread and wine

you will make me whole

and set me free to serve you.”

           ~ Ruth Burgess

 

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April 8, 2020 

Open my eyes so I can see the wonders of the earth
And the beauty of the sky
Open them wide so
that you can see all the people
that God has given us
as friends to love and abide
For the gifts given to us
with friendship and love
Tranquility and peace
always look for it.

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April 7, 2020 

How do we wait
in these fragile times?

How do we understand
resurrection
in the face of so much death?

How can we be still
When so many around
are violated?

Questions
that we cannot answer –
just like the disciples of old.

They were baffled too,
and lost,
weary with grief.

Yet with them
we can pray:”

“God, in these fragile times,
help us to remain open to your Spirit, to work
for the coming of peace and understanding
in our violent and divided world.”

~ Kathy Galloway

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April 6, 2020

“When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”

~Audre Lorde

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Palm Sunday – April 5, 2020

Peace Prayer of St. Francis

“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

when there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

and where there is sadness, joy.

Grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console;

to be understood, as to understand,

to be loved as to love;

for it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying (to ourselves) that we

are born to eternal life.”

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April 4, 2020                                                                                                                                                                     “You can’t use up creativity, the more you use, the more you have.”

~Maya Angelou

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April 3, 2020

Eagle Poem – Joy Harjo

“To pray you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can’t see, can’t hear;
Can’t know except in moments
Steadily growing, and in languages
That aren’t always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River. Circled in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty.”

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April 2, 2020

“Gratitude, like faith, is a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it grows, and the more power you have to use it on your behalf. If you do not practice gratefulness, its benefaction will go unnoticed, and your capacity to draw on its gifts will be diminished. To be grateful is to find blessings in everything. This is the most powerful attitude to adopt, for there are blessings in everything.”

~ Alan Cohen

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April 1, 2020

Chimes of Freedom

”Far between sundown’s finish an’ midnight’s broken toll
We ducked inside the doorway, thunder crashing
As majestic bells of bolts struck shadows in the sounds
Seeming to be the chimes of freedom flashing
Flashing for the warriors whose strength is not to fight
Flashing for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight
An’ for each an’ ev’ry underdog soldier in the night
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing
Through the city’s melted furnace, unexpectedly we watched
With faces hidden as the walls were tightening
As the echo of the wedding bells before the blowin’ rain
Dissolved into the bells of the lightning
Tolling for the rebel, tolling for the rake
Tolling for the luckless, the abandoned an’ forsakened
Tolling for the outcast, burnin’ constantly at stake
An’ we gazed upon the chimes of freedom flashing”

 ~ Bob Dylan 
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March 31, 2020
“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

~Martin Niemoller

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March 30, 2020

 “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear; for fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not reached perfection in love. We love because God first loved us.”  

~John 4: 18-19 

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March 29, 2020

“You are not a drop in the ocean, you are the entire ocean in a drop.”

~Rumi

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March 28, 2020
Recently, having been through struggling times, I have used my Bible to find passages to sustain me. As I was reading through Psalms one verse called out to me. I read it often. It helped me with my worries… still I turn to it.

Psalm 55:22
“Cast burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.”

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March 27, 2020

“In the external scheme of things, shining moments are as brief as the twinkling of an eye, yet such twinklings are what eternity is made of — moments when we human beings can say “I love you,” “I’m proud of you,” “I forgive you,” “I’m grateful for you.” That’s what eternity is made of: invisible imperishable good stuff.”

~ Fred Rogers (1928-2003)

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March 26, 2020
There is a lot of unclear information about where this poem came from but I think that it was found scratched into the wall of a concentration camp after WWII. 
“I believe in the sun, even when it’s not shining. 
I believe in love, even when I feel it not. 
I believe in God, even when He is silent.”

Author Unknown

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March 25, 2020

Wild Geese

“You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.”

~from Dream Work by Mary Oliver

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March 24, 2020

“May the road rise up to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face
And the rain fall soft about your fields
Until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of his hand.”

~Irish Blessing

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March 23, 2020 

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March 20, 2020

“Each moment of our days–our meals, our conversations with friends, our escapes, obsessions, romances, and distractions–is what we make of our lives. Our habits and rhythms of life are formative not only of who we are but how we know the world, including whether we know it to be a place where God is present or absent.”

~ Mike Cosper

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March 19, 2020

Morning Poem
“Every morning
the world
is created.
Under the orange

sticks of the sun
the heaped
ashes of the night
turn into leaves again

and fasten themselves to the high branches —
and the ponds appear
like black cloth
on which are painted islands

of summer lilies.
If it is your nature
to be happy
you will swim away along the soft trails

for hours, your imagination
alighting everywhere.
And if your spirit
carries within it

the thorn
that is heavier than lead —
if it’s all you can do
to keep on trudging —

there is still
somewhere deep within you
a beast shouting that the earth
is exactly what it wanted —

each pond with its blazing lilies
is a prayer heard and answered
lavishly,
every morning,

whether or not
you have ever dared to be happy,
whether or not
you have ever dared to pray.”
~ from Dream Work (1986) by Mary Oliver

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“Life is what happens to you while you make other plans”

~John Lennon

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Lockdown

Yes there is fear.
Yes there is isolation.
Yes there is panic buying.
Yes there is sickness.
Yes there is even death.
But,
They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise
You can hear the birds again.
They say that after just a few weeks of quiet
The sky is no longer thick with fumes
But blue and grey and clear.
They say that in the streets of Assisi
People are singing to each other
across the empty squares,
keeping their windows open
so that those who are alone
may hear the sounds of family around them.
They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland
Is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.
Today a young woman I know
is busy spreading fliers with her number
through the neighbourhood
So that the elders may have someone to call on.
Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples
are preparing to welcome
and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary
All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting
All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way
All over the world people are waking up to a new reality
To how big we really are.
To how little control we really have.
To what really matters.
To Love.
So we pray and we remember that
Yes there is fear.
But there does not have to be hate.
Yes there is isolation.
But there does not have to be loneliness.
Yes there is panic buying.
But there does not have to be meanness.
Yes there is sickness.
But there does not have to be disease of the soul
Yes there is even death.
But there can always be a rebirth of love.
Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.
Today, breathe.
Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic
The birds are singing again
The sky is clearing,
Spring is coming,
And we are always encompassed by Love.
Open the windows of your soul
And though you may not be able
to touch across the empty square,
Sing.

-from Richard Hendrick (Brother Richard) in Ireland
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Grand Canyon

“They say the layered earth rose up
ancient rock leviathan
trailing ages in its wake
lifting earth-mass toward the sun
and coursing water cut the rock away
to leave these many-storied walls
expose of ages gone
around this breathless emptiness
more wondrous far
than earth had ever known.

My life has risen layered too
each day each year in turn has left
its fossil life and sediments
evidence of lived and unlived hours
the tedium the anguish yes the joy
that some heart-deep vitality
keeps pressing upward
toward the day I die

And spirit cuts like water through it all
carving out this emptiness
so inner eye can see
the soring height of canyon walls within
walls whose very color, texture, form
redeem in beauty all my life has been
the darkness and the light, the false, the true
while deep below the living waters run
cutting deeper through my parts
to resurrect my grave-bound heart
making, always making, all things new.”

~Parker J. Palmer

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“Come and find the quiet center in the crowded life we lead, find the room for hope to enter, find the frame where we are freed; clear the chaos and the clutter, clear the eyes, so we can see all the things that really matter, be at peace, and simply be.”

~ Shirley Erena Murray

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Isaiah 6:1–8
“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.” The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.

And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I; send me!” (NRSV)

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The Peace of Wild Things

by Wendell Berry

“When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.”

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“Let me keep my distance from those who think they have the answers.  Let me keep company always with those who say “Look!” and laugh in astonishment, and bow their heads.”
~Mary Oliver

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“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

~Martin Luther King, Jr

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“In this world there’s a whole lot of trouble, baby
In this world there’s a whole lot of pain
In this world there’s a whole lot of trouble, but
A whole lot of ground to gain
Why take when you could be giving?
Why watch as the world goes by?
It’s a hard enough life to be living
Why walk when you can fly?
In this world there’s a whole lot of sorrow
In this world there’s a whole lot of shame
In this world there’s a whole lot of sorrow
And a whole lot of ground to gain
When you spend your whole life wishing
Wanting, and wondering why
It’s a long enough life to be living
Why walk when you can fly?
And in this world there’s a whole lot of golden
In this world there’s a whole lot of pain
In this world you’ve a soul for a compass
And a heart for a pair of wings
There’s a star on the far horizon
Rising bright in an azure sky
For the rest of the time that you’re given
Why walk when you can fly?”

~Mary Chapin Carpenter

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“It’s never too late to have a happy childhood.”

~Wayne Dyer

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Turning Thirty

“Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his work.” – Luke 3:23

“Luke doesn’t mean that Jesus lazed around for twenty-nine years and then, upon turning thirty, got off his duff and went to work. It’s true, no one knows for sure what Jesus was up to before his thirtieth, but Christians have traditionally imagined him knocking out tables and benches in Joseph’s shop. In other words, working.

So it’s not work that Jesus begins at thirty. It’s his work. Work only he can do; work that fits him; God-imagined, God-bestowed, Jesus-shaped work. A purpose so persuasive that he stops filling orders for dining room chairs, picks the wood curls out of his hair, and leaves his mother calling after him at the door. His work.

Each of us has our work, too. A purpose we find in the overlap of who we are, what we’re good at, what we love, and what our human neighborhood is needing. Work that generates motivating joy as we lend ourselves to it. Work that makes us more fully who we were created to be as we give ourselves away in doing it.

Sometimes our work coincides with our jobs. Sometimes it doesn’t: it disrupts and uproots us. Sometimes it leads to great public achievements. Often it’s as hidden as Jesus was in those first twenty-nine. Whatever it is, we’re meant to seek and find this work that is seeking us. We’re meant to turn thirty, which we can do at any age. The important thing isn’t how old we are when we find it. The important thing is that, like Jesus, once we find it, we step out in trust and do it.”

Prayer
“God, may I find the work that is mine to do, and the courage and grace to do it.”
~ Mary Luti

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“Be the living expression of God’s Kindness; Kindness in your face, Kindness in your eyes, Kindness in your smile, Kindness”

~ Mother Teresa

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“The time is always right to do what is right.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

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“I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear; knowing what must be done does away with fear.”
– Rosa Parks

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“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” —Mother Teresa

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“Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek.”

—Barack Obama

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 “Truth is powerful and it prevails.”

— Sojourner Truth

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“For to be free is not merely to cast off one’s chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others.” 

~ Nelson Mandela

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“Hate is too great a burden to bear.  It injures the hater more than it injures the hated.”
—Coretta Scott King

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“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is a broken winged bird that cannot fly.”

 — Langston Hughes

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“My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.”
—Desmond Tutu

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“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, “What are you doing for others?”  Martin Luther King Jr.

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A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives.
– Jackie Robinson

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‘Come,’
He said, and I did,
Following his voice
Through the crowd on the edge of town.
I needed wait no longer:
My voice had been heard
Calling for change,
Crying out for a fresh start –
Even though it meant casting off old ways,
No longer the needy person everybody knew.
‘Come,’ he said
And I saw what God could do.
‘Your faith has healed you,’
He told me. ‘Now go.’
He never said, ‘Follow me’ –
But, as I could see, there was no other way.

February 5, 2020

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‘Follow me,’ 
He said, for I had asked him
The next step on a journey
Of personal salvation.
He reminded me of all the good things
I already knew and did.
So nothing was left to do –
I was ready to go.
‘Now sell all you have,’
He said, ‘Give it away to the poor.’
How could I let go just like that –
Lighten the load,
Shed my responsibilities,
Become someone I did not know?
What would be left?
‘Follow me,’ he said
But with heavy heart
I shook my head

February 4, 2020

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‘Go,’ he said.
‘Let the children be fed first –
Why should the dogs eat their bread?’
But I would not be turned away:
Hoping for healing,
Hungry for justice,
I stood my ground and argued:
‘In God’s household
Even the dogs are fed.’
Seeing my faith,
He told me to go home
And find my daughter healed.
‘Go,’ he said – and I did.

Feb. 3, 2020

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‘Follow me,’
he said – and I did.
Tax collecting never made me popular,
But it put a roof over my head
And bread on my table –
Bitter bread, because grabbed and grudged.
He invited me to become
No longer dog in the manger
But host at the feast.
He came right under my roof
Sharing my bread
And showing me how to share
With all the rest.
‘Follow me,’
He said – and I did.

January 31, 2020

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Follow Me
“Follow me,”
he said – and we did.
We let go of the heavy wet nets,
the tough strands of tarred rope:
our strong hands
were empty – we let go
or all we knew how to do,
our livelihood, our identity-
to follow a dream,
a job description
that no one in their senses
would take seriously.
“Follow me,”
he said – and we did.

January 30, 2020

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“The Christian life is not about pleasing God the finger-shaker and judge. It is not about believing now or being good now for the sake of heaven later. It is about entering a relationship in the present that begins to change everything now. Spirituality is about this process: the opening of the heart to the God who is already here.”
― Marcus J. Borg

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“When we lose one blessing, another is often most unexpectedly given in its place.”  – C.S. Lewis

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“Love is what God is, love is why Jesus came, and love is why he continues to come, year after year to person after person… May you experience this vast, expansive, infinity indestructible love that has been  yours all along. May you discover that this love is as wide as the sky and as small as the cracks in your heart no one else knows about, and may you know, deep in your bones, that love wins.”

~ Rob Bell

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“And this is it. This is the life we get here on earth. We get to give away what we receive. We get to believe in each other. We get to forgive and be forgiven. We get to love imperfectly. And we never know what effect it will have for years to come. And all of  it…all of  it is completely worth it.”

― Nadia Bolz-Weber

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“If you can’t fly then run,

if you can’t run then walk,

if you can’t walk then crawl,

but whatever you do

you have to keep moving forward.”​

~Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 

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“We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies.”

~ Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1/17/20

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Everybody can be great … because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.

~ Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1/16/20

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Happy Birthday, MLK, Jr.!
1/15/20

The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But… the good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’

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From Martin Luther King,  Jr. 

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”

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Something Wise, Something Joyful
Walk wisely in this world.
Listen before you speak.
Look deeply before you leap.
Share love with those who walk beside you.

And, on long winter nights
When the moon is hiding
And frost crusts the soil,
Do not be afraid to try out something different,
Something wild,
Something joyful,
Just for the hell of it
And hope that it leads you to heaven.
~ Ruth Burgess 01/10/20

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1/08/2020
In-dwelling God, we greet you in this new year. As centuries come and go, your presence is ever new when we open our senses to receive you. We ask now that you sharpen our awareness of your creative energy at work within and around us. Let us welcome you in the stranger who is not yet a friend, in the hungry who need the food and care we might provide, in the nurse who fulfills our thirst for water and kindness. Show us your expectations for us this season. Amen.
~ Lavon Baylor

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Epiphany 01/06/20

Epiphany is a jewel
multi-faceted,
flashing color and light.
Epiphany embraces
the nations of the world,
kneeling on a bare floor
before a child.
Epiphany shows
a man
kneeling in the waters of baptism.
Epiphany reveals
the best is kept for last
as water becomes wine
at the wedding feast.

O Holy One
to whom was given
the gifts of power and prayer,
the gift of suffering,
help us to use these same gifts
in your way
and in your name.

~Kate McIlhagga

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Away in the Manger…at Home in the Heart

The gift of God’s creative Word that called each one into being is swept into our heart this day like the rush of breath of God’s Holy Spirit. Truly at home in the heart of God, filled with the presence of Divine life and breath, we are called to incarnation. We are invited to the body, the vessel of God’s very presence. We become the embrace for wounded friends, the words of grace for the heartbroken, encouragement and love for those who are the subjects of our greatest relationships. Today may you become a Bethlehem as Divine love is birthed into your life.

~ Rev. Dr. Brenda K. Buckwell, OBL, OSB 01/03/20

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Christ Like! 01/02/2020
I open the stable door,
I look into the manger,
I see the child there,
looking just like you.
I give my love as a blanket
to keep you warm
as I discover in you
the Christ of today
and when you cry
I hold you in my arms
and realize
you’re just like me.
~Richard Becher

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12/31/2019
We welcome the new beginning that a fresh year offers. All our good intentions are caught up in the promise of starting over. Help us to leave behind that which we cannot change and move forward boldly on the paths in which you would lead us. We accept from your hand the water of life. May the fountain of love never run dry, for we need to drink from it day after day. Amen.
~ Lavon Bayler

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The World Still Knows 12/30/2019
The night is still dark and a procession of Herods still terrorize the earth, killing the children to stay in power. The world still knows its Herods, but it also still knows men and women who pack their dreams safely in their hearts and set off toward Bethlehem, faithful against all odds, undeterred by fatigue or rejection,
to kneel to a child.

And the world still knows those persons wise enough to follow a star, those who do not consider themselves too intelligent
Too powerful
Too wealthy
to kneel to a child.

And the world still knows those hearts so humble that they’re ready to hear the word of a song and to leave what they have, to go
to kneel to a child.

The night is still dark, but by the light of the star, even today we can still see
to kneel to a child.

~ Ann Weems

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A Christmas Song 12/27/2019
In the cold of the night
as Mary held her baby tight,
O, warn us, hold us
in your love, God with us, in Christ.

In the lonely night
as Mary calmed her baby’s fright,
O, still us, comfort us
in your love, God with us, in Christ.

In the peaceful night
as Mary trusted all was right
O, guide us, hearten us,
with your love, God with us, in Christ.

In the dark of night
as Mary saw her baby’s light,
O, shine on, shine on us
with your love, God with us, in Christ.
~ Michael Coffey

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Christmas Eve 12/25/2019

Tonight old dreams die and new dreams come to life. The Promise is fulfilled! Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace.  Hope gives way to joy and prayer to proclamation. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace. Our candles illuminate our story. Dawn invades midnight. The Light of the World has come. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace. And this light is a light for all; igniting a flame within the soul, warming us from within, radiating love, lighting our lives with the presence of God-come-alive in human flesh within us and among us now and always. Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, goodwill to all.

~ Ruth C. Duck & Maren C. Tirabassi

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The Christmas Spirit 12/23/2019
The Christmas spirit is that hope which tenaciously clings to the hearts of the faithful
and announces in the face of any Herod the world can produce and all the inn doors slammed in our face and all the dark nights of our souls that with God all things are still possible, that even now unto us a Child is born!
~ Ann Weems

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Prayer 12/18/2019

Ransom me, O God of freedom, from my captivity. Set me free from the things that keep me in bondage. Empower me to take action to reach one of your least or lost. May I see your face in all those I meet today, and may I be your hands and heart in this captive world. Amen.
~ Beth A. Richardson

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The Wild Rose 12/17/2019

Sometimes hidden from me
In daily custom and in trust,
So that I live by you unaware
As by the beating of my heart.

Suddenly you flare in my sight,
A wild rose blooming at the edge
Of thicket, grace and light
Where yesterday was only shade.

And once more I am blessed,
Choosing again what I chose before.
And once more I am blessed,
Choosing again what I chose before.

~ Wendell Berry

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Waiting 12/16/2019

All my life I have waited: waited for the project to be completed, waited for supper to be ready, waited for the doctor to see me. I have waited at the traffic light, waited for the right relationship, waited to grow up.

I have waited alone or waited with friends. I have waited anxiously. I have waited expectantly. Some waits have brought joy. Other waits have brought bad news. Some waits have been “worth waiting for.”

Now it is Advent, and I am waiting again. This time I am waiting in the darkness of my soul-ravaged by sorrow, anger, and fear. But I do not despair in the waiting, for I remember the way light looks and feels. The memories of silent nights with starlit skies are with me, and I have been bathed in the warmth of love’s light. And so I hope-for Messiah to come.

Voices sing, “Prepare him room.” I know now waiting cannot be passive. There is something to do, but where? I have no inn or stable, but in my heart, I can make room. Move over doubt. Move over despair. Make room for Truth, for Life, for Love. Make room for the Prince of Peace.

~ Kathy Clark-Dickens

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12/12/2019

God did not wait till our lives were spotless.
God did not wait till every child was loved.
God did not wait till the hungry were fed.
God did not wait till the broken-hearted were comforted.
God came to a world such as ours to lighten the way, bring hope and guide us into the ways of peace.

~ Nicola Slee & Rosie Miles

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The Hope of Loving 12/11/2019

What keeps us alive, what allows us to endure?
I think it is the hope of loving,
or being loved.
I heard a fable once about the sun going on a journey to find it’s source, and how the moon wept
without her lover’s warm gaze.
We weep when light does not reach our hearts. We wither like fields if someone close
does not rain their
kindness
upon
us.
~ Meister Eckhart

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Caregiving God 12/10/2019

Caregiving God,
providing for our needs,
as you long to fill the hungry with food,
so also fill our imagination
with people and things that are just true,
excellent, noble, and worthy of praise,
that by dwelling on the beauty of goodness,
we may grow into it day by day
as students of Christ
in whose name we pray, Amen.

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Second Sunday in Advent 12/9/2019

Our God, who sends your most valuable gifts as tiny children,
And teaches us to love each other by first loving us,
Remind us again that two candles always give twice as much light,
And that only in community can we receive and share your gifts.
As we lovingly shop,
Help us remember that our gifts are symbols of your incredible life.
Help us remember people who may receive no gifts,
And sometimes even may receive no love that they can recognize.
Teach us to see that no child of yours is unlovable.
Come, Lord Jesus!
~ Kit Kuperstock

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SAPENTIA – WISDOM 12/6/2019

Prayer
O Wisdom, breath of God’s power,
Your glory fills the streets and skies,
Your order all things sweetly and justly:
Come, blow us clean
And teach us wonder and truth.
~ Ruth Burgess

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Midwinter prayer 12/5/2019

God of all creation
of bare forest and low northern skies
of paths unknown and never to be taken
of bramble, sparrow and damp, dark earth

we thank you for loss, for the breaking of the dimming year
we thank you for light, even in its seeming midwinter falling
we thank you for life, for its hope and resistance
like a seed dying and living.

~Rachel Mann

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12/4/2019

 

Night is drawing nigh –
“How long the road is. But, for all the time the journey has already taken, how you have needed every second of it in order to learn what the road passes-by.
~ Dag Hammarskjold 

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Giver of Hope 12/3/2019

Spirit of God,
you open doors that are locked,
break the shackles of slavery,
erode the pyramids of domination,
and tumble tyrants from their thrones.

You give us life
and whisper in our hearts,
“You are God’s beloved child,
and always will be.”

Deep in every human heart
you plant a seed of promise,
a glimmer of expectation,
and a spark of hope.

~ Brian Wren

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First Sunday in Advent 12/2/2019

 

Creator of infinite stretches of icy universe,

Now is the time we need to address you as Father, as Mother.

Daylight has shrunk. Out in the darkness, people are cold.

You have promised that your word will become flesh and dwell among us,

Bringing your peace and love and joy.

In the cold and the dark,

give us the courage to light one candle,

And share your light with all those around us.  Come, Lord Jesus!

~ Kit Kuperstock