Is it not time

The psalms show us what justice looks like.

Justice maintains the right of the weak, and it rescues the needy (Ps. 82). It rejects the desire to take advantage of the vulnerable (Ps. 94). The just refuse to speak out of two sides of their mouth (Ps. 28). They aren’t bloodthirsty (Ps. 139), greedy (Ps. 10), or conniving (Ps. 94), and they don’t love violence (Ps. 11). Those who love justice actively reject all systems that oppress people (Ps. 58).

Who are the recipients of justice? All people alike require justice. But those who need it most, according to the Psalms, are what philosopher Nicholas Wolterstorff calls the “quartet of the vulnerable”: widows, orphans, poor, and resident aliens”

In other words, the very people being abandoned by the American right (those who paradoxically claim Jesus)

A Psalm for our times

God is

We know God

We know God

God is immanent and transcendent

God is in us

A spark

A roaring fire

A rushing wind

A spring of living wate

And God is just

And God demands justice

How long O Lord will this continue

How long with the liars, the frauds

The greedy

The abusive

Flourish

How long will they sit in the seats of power

And in the courts of justice

A promote inequity, and inequality

How long will they make the rich richer

And the poor poorer

O God love

Change us!

Transform us

Give us new minds, new hearts

New eyes

Make us a people

Make us a nation

That defends the weak rather than shames them

That lifts the poor up rather than shames them

That defends the weak rather than ridicules them

That refuses to accept and sustain systems that oppress

Rather than worshiping the wicked

May we see them for who they are

Destroyers

Dividers

Plunderers

They talk about God

They sell Bibles

They claim God’s favor

They claim God’s call

But they know nothing, they understand nothing.

They walk about in darkness;

all the foundations of the earth are shaken.

O God, is it not time?

Is it not time, before there is no time

For love to win?

collateral renewal

You have heard of collateral damage. Now hear of collateral renewal. Every time we act in kindness, in mercy, in love: the impact of our actions radiates out to touch many more lives than the ones in our immediate vicinity. Others we do not know will be affected. The reverberations of our compassion will circle the world. Collateral renewal – healing rippling out, never ending.

                     Steven Charleston

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On Friday Jesus was put on a cross

He went by choice

A choice not to meet violence with violence

Hate with hate

He could, perhaps have cursed his tormentors

He could have rained invectives on those gathered around him

Those who had beaten him

Nailed him to a tree

In order to steal his breath

The breath of God within him

Instead from that cross rained down

Forgiveness

Compassion

Healing

Restoration

Drop by drop by drop

Love hit that immense sea of enmity

Creating ripples of renewal

That spread

Moving every outward

Transforming

His disciples who could have

In anger

Turned to violence

Didn’t

Those who could have luxuriated in resentment

Didn’t

Christ’s love

Creating collateral renewal

We all see those who

Drop hate and resentment into the world

Those create collateral damage

They create ripples of anger

And we

Alas

Become smaller

Harder

Colder

Crueler

They bring out the worst in use

And make this world hell

But still, love comes

Drop by drop

Filling us

So that we

“act in kindness, in mercy, in love”

We too have a choice

Even when the worst happens

Even then

To radiate compassion

To create collateral renewal

I don’t know what went on in the souls

The hearts and minds of the disciples

On that Saturday

During the great wait

But I hope what they heard were not the cries

Crucify him

But the gentle words

Forgive them

Today you will be with me in Paradise

Here is your mother

Here is your son

I hope I believe

That in that dead silence

Renewal happened

I pray that today

We, those who follow

Can choose love

That we can choose, even as we are assailed

By lies, and hate

By the abuse of power

To look with compassion

Even on our tormentors

Even those who wish us dead

That

We can act with kindness, mercy, and love

For what comes from the cross must be

Must always be

renewal

God are you There?

When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it!” —Genesis 28:16

The Bible I set out to learn and love rewarded me with another way of approaching God, a way that trusts the union of spirit and flesh as much as it trusts the world to be a place of encounter with God…. People encounter God under shady oak trees, on riverbanks, at the tops of mountains, and in long stretches of barren wilderness. God shows up in whirlwinds, starry skies, burning bushes, and perfect strangers. When people want to know more about God, the son of God tells them to pay attention to the lilies of the field and the birds of the air, to women kneading bread and workers lining up for their pay….

According to the Talmud, every blade of grass has its own angel bending over it, whispering, “Grow, grow.”  How does one learn to see and hear such angels?

          Barbara Brown Taylor (quoted by the Center for Action and Contemplation)

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God!

Are you there?

I wonder sometimes

When my body hurts

And my eyes fail

I wonder sometimes

When I hear the disabled ridiculed

And people laugh

When I hear hate spewed

And people cheer

When I watch as masses, driven by resentment

Are fueled by a desire dominance

I wonder sometimes as I watch us

Destroy the planet for profit

And see dying and starving children

The flotsam of war

O God!

My heart fails within me

My feet stumble

As I see the prosperity of the wicked.

I know there is nothing new under the sun

We have seen this before

The words of an ancient Psalmist echo in my soul

As he laments human arrogance

“Therefore pride is their necklace; they clothe themselves with violence.

  From their callous hearts comes iniquity; their evil imaginations have no limits.

  They scoff, and speak with malice; with arrogance, they threaten oppression.

  Their mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth.”

          (Psalm 73)

Where are you, God?

Why do you not set things right!?

Why do you not bring down the mighty and lift up the poor?

Are you in this place?

Surely, you are in this place.

Help me to know it.

Help me to see you, God of love

In the brilliant reds of the sunrise

In the majesty of the mountains

In the laughing voices of the streams

Help me to see you, Lord,

In the eagle that flies

And the deer that wanders

In creatures large and small

Help me to see you in the little things

In that act of kindness

That kind word

That smile, that laugh

That comes

I need glimmers of your presence Lord,

Help me to see you

Even where it is hardest to see you

In those human creatures who strive and toil

Love and hate

Destroy and heal

We are so confusing, O Sacred

So confused

Help me to see you, lord, in myself

And in all those others

In whom your image is badly blurred

May I see and hear the angels

Softly whispering

You are loved

You are loved

Grow

Grow

Little Boats of Prayer

It is consoling to remember that there are old and feeble nuns in forgotten convents who live out their days by creating little boats of prayer to ferry nourishment to a hungry world.

John O’Donohue, Eternal Echoes, p.212

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prayer is not
manipulation
or coercing God

It is not dishonest
(Ok sometimes it is, but God can sort that – and us – out)

It always comes from the soul
(at least I think it must)

It can be joyful or sad
Angry or thankful
It can anything that we think or feel
anything, can be sent toward the Sacred

It can be how we act
For all of life can become a prayer

Mostly it is connection
Through prayer the God in us
connects with the God who is in every place
every object
every person
every moment

our prayers are the way
we feel God
it is the way God feels what we feel
it is how we receive and send
compassion and love
nourishment
forgiveness
hope

it is God sharing
Sacred presence with us
And us
Sharing that same presence with others

We do not have to have the right words
There is no approved formula
There are no “professional” prayers
In this world

Just people willing to join with the Sacred,
and then share the Sacred
through thought, attitude, action deed

It is in the sharing
It is in the sending of those little boats of love

It is in through the sharing itself
That comes the knowing
The loving
The healing the
Hoping

Here’s to those nuns!
And to all
Who faithfully pray!

In our heart space

Many have described prayer as bringing your thinking down into your heart. Next time a resentment, negativity, or irritation comes into your mind, and you are tempted to play it out or attach to it, instead move that thought or person into your heart space–literally. There, surround this negativity with silence (which is much easier to do in the heart) and your pumping blood (which will often feel warm like coals). In this place, it is almost impossible to comment, judge, create story lines, or remain antagonistic. You are in a place that does not create or feed on contraries but is the natural organ of life, embodiment, and love. Love lives and thrives in the heart space.

This practice has kept me from wanting to hurt people who have hurt me. It keeps me from obsessive, repetitive, or compulsive head games. It can make the difference between being happy and being miserable and negative.

Could this be what we are really doing when we pray for someone? Yes, we are holding them in our heart space.
Richard Rohr
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Who do I need to hold in my heart Lord?
Who do I need to surround with the warm rhythm of love

I have a long list
of people I resent
and toward whom I feel anger

politicians
home made militia men and women
haters
judgers
abusers
people who hoard resources, and let the vulnerable die

I could go on an on
(and on and on and on)

People there are those people I would comfort
who face the world at its worst
whose bodies are failing
whose heart are weak
whose lives are chaos
whose minds just don’t work, quit right

who are lost and lonely, and afraid

But perhaps Lord
the first person I need to hold in my heart space
is me

perhaps I need to be at peace with this
hater, judger
this flawed but beautiful person
this person, in pain

perhaps I need to enlarge this heart
and let love thrive
here
and surround me

so that I might then hold others
in a warm embrace

To Live is to Pray

“Prayer, according to Brother David, is waking up to the presence of God no matter where I am or what I am doing. When I am fully alert to whatever or whoever is right in front of me; when I am electrically aware of the tremendous gift of being alive; when I am able to give myself wholly to the moment I am in, then I am in prayer
Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World
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to live is to pray
not merely to live,
as one going through the motions, without hope
or purpose

but to really live
engaged
connected

to really live
so awake
to the sacred around us
and in us

to be so aware
of the what is happening
to those
placed in our path

the pain and fear
the anger and despair
the joy and the hope

so aware of the needs of the world
and the beauty of creation

that we cannot help but respond

joining our hearts
and souls (if there is such a thing)
with all around us,

scattering our hope and will wishes
our questions and our pleas
into the far reaches of the universe,
to Sacred, the heart of all creation

allowing our hearts burst into a Sacred song
of joy and amazement
supplication and hope.

that is prayer!

Thoughts on prayer

“What’s prayer?
It’s shooting shafts into the dark.
It’s reaching for a hand you cannot touch.”

– Godric speaking, from the novel Godric Frederick Beuchner
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at times I feel I am talking into thin air
or worse into a dense wall

my words disappear into vastness
or rebound back
heavy and unanswered

Sacred is hard to find
difficult to touch

perhaps the problem
is that I have the wrong idea about prayer

perhaps I think it is about expectations
about appeals and answers

as if God
somehow limited
and created in my image
is there to be owned by me

to fulfill my pitiable requests

but perchance prayer is more about the seeking
the searching
the listening

and maybe the answers come in ways mysterious
in those brief moments when my fingers lightly brush Sacred

in the morning’s sun
in the howl off the wind

or in the simple lightening of
my heart

Treat the Children (of God) Well

If you want to know the religion of a man,
do not look at how much he prays and fasts,
rather look at how he treats people!!!
Imam Ja’far al Sadiq (as)
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it is not so much what I believe
nor what rituals I follow
nor what sacred text I read

it matters not what I wear
on a chain around my neck
or what kind of bumper sticker I put on my car

it doesn’t even matter which religion
I claim as mine

none of those things reveal
the God I truly follow

as much as whether I am kind to a hurting person
generous to one who is needy
accepting of one who is different
loving to one who is difficult
caring to one who needs healing

it matters how I treat people
for each person is
a child of God

and I am called
by the Sacred I would follow to
welcome
them

Prayer IS

Prayer is the act and presence of sending this light from the bountifulness of your love
To other people
To heal, free, and bless them. When there is love in your life, you should share it spiritually
With those who are pushed to the very edge of life.
John O’Donahue, Anam Caram, p. 35
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Prayer
Is not coercing God

it is not ring the bell for a Cosmic Bell Hop

it is not mere words
spoken into a vast emptiness

it is the sending of love
energy
light

it is opening up the flood gates
so the “spring of living water” might gush forth
and water
parched souls

at times it is
giving food to the food bank
and giving
whatever is need
to those who are in need

prayer
is

Share this:

“When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers.” – Oscar Wilde

Oh wow
I want it
And I want it now

And that too!

And don’t forget this!

And so
Hungering for things that don’t satisfy
Searching for fullness in all the wrong places
Thinking that wealth or power
Will bring me happiness

I pray

God, please don’t listen
to all my prayers,

for I do not know how to pray.

listen to those longings
those cries from the heart
that emerge
from the depths of my soul

those deep pleadings
which emerge
from that deep place
where my soul and your presence
as so woven together
that we speak
with
one
voice