together, day 5

Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.

Opening Prayer:
All praise and thanks to thee, most merciful God, for adopting us as thine own children, for incorporating us into thy holy Church, and for making us worthy to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.  Grant us, we pray, all things necessary for our common life, and bring us all to be of one heart and mind within thy holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 133

Scripture for the Day: John 17:20-26

Reading for Reflection: 

Ultimately the body of Christ, so central in incarnational theology, is not the physical body of Jesus but the corporate body of those who gather around the Spirit, wherever it is found...Jesus exercises the only kind of leadership that can evoke authentic community—a leadership that risks failure (and even crucifixion) by making space for other people to act.  When a leader takes up all the space and preempts all the action, he or she may make something happen, but that something is not community.  Nor is it abundance, because the leader is only one person and one person's resources invariably run out.  But when a leader is willing to trust the abundance that people have and can generate together, willing to take the risk of inviting people to share from that abundance, then and only then may true community emerge. (Let Your Life Speak by Parker J. Palmer)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Blessed Be the Tie That Binds

 

Blessed be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like that to that above.

 

Before our Father's throne
We pour our ardent prayers;
Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one
Our comforts and our cares.

 

We share each other's woes,
Our mutual burdens bear;
And often for each other flows
The sympathizing tear.

 

When we asunder part,
It gives us inward pain;
But we shall still be joined in heart,
And hope to meet again.

 

This glorious hope revives
Our courage by the way;
While each in expectation lives,
And longs to see the day.

 

From sorrow, toil and pain,
And sin, we shall be free,
And perfect love and friendship reign
Through all eternity.

Closing Prayer:
O God, fountain of love, pour love into our souls, that we may love those whom you love with the love you give us, and think and speak about them tenderly, meekly, lovingly; and so loving our brothers and sisters for your sake, may we grow in your love, and live in your love, that by living in your love we may live in you; for Jesus Christ’s sake. (E. B. Pusey, quoted from Classic Christian Prayers by Owen Collins)

together, day 4

Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.

Opening Prayer:
All praise and thanks to thee, most merciful God, for adopting us as thine own children, for incorporating us into thy holy Church, and for making us worthy to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.  Grant us, we pray, all things necessary for our common life, and bring us all to be of one heart and mind within thy holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 133

Scripture for the Day: Colossians 3:12-17

Reading for Reflection: 

Community, then, cannot grow out of loneliness, but comes when the person who begins to recognize his or her belovedness greets the belovedness of the other.  The God alive in me greets the God resident in you.  When people can cease having to be for us everything, we can accept the fact they may still have a gift for us.  They are partial reflections of the great love of God, but reflections nevertheless.  We see that gift precisely and only once we give up requiring that person to be everything, to be God.  We see him or her as a limited expression of an unlimited love. (Turn My Mourning Into Dancing by Henri J. M. Nouwen)

 

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Blessed Be the Tie That Binds

 

Blessed be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like that to that above.

 

Before our Father's throne
We pour our ardent prayers;
Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one
Our comforts and our cares.

 

We share each other's woes,
Our mutual burdens bear;
And often for each other flows
The sympathizing tear.

 

When we asunder part,
It gives us inward pain;
But we shall still be joined in heart,
And hope to meet again.

 

This glorious hope revives
Our courage by the way;
While each in expectation lives,
And longs to see the day.

 

From sorrow, toil and pain,
And sin, we shall be free,
And perfect love and friendship reign
Through all eternity.

Closing Prayer:
O God, fountain of love, pour love into our souls, that we may love those whom you love with the love you give us, and think and speak about them tenderly, meekly, lovingly; and so loving our brothers and sisters for your sake, may we grow in your love, and live in your love, that by living in your love we may live in you; for Jesus Christ’s sake. (E. B. Pusey, quoted from Classic Christian Prayers by Owen Collins)

together, day 3

Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.

Opening Prayer:
All praise and thanks to thee, most merciful God, for adopting us as thine own children, for incorporating us into thy holy Church, and for making us worthy to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.  Grant us, we pray, all things necessary for our common life, and bring us all to be of one heart and mind within thy holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 133

Scripture for the Day: Romans 12:1-21

Reading for Reflection: 

Two people, three people, ten people may be in living touch with one another through Him who underlies their separate lives.  This is an astounding experience, which I can only describe but cannot explain in the language of science.  But in vivid experience of divine Fellowship it is there.  We know that these souls are with us, lifting their lives and ours continuously to God and opening themselves, with us, in steady and humble obedience to Him.  It is as if the boundaries of our self were enlarged, as if we were within them and as if they were within us.  Their strength, given to them by God, becomes our strength, and our joy, given to us by God, becomes their joy.  In confidence and love we live together in Him. (A Testament of Devotion by Thomas Kelly)

 

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Blessed Be the Tie That Binds

 

Blessed be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like that to that above.

 

Before our Father's throne
We pour our ardent prayers;
Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one
Our comforts and our cares.

 

We share each other's woes,
Our mutual burdens bear;
And often for each other flows
The sympathizing tear.

 

When we asunder part,
It gives us inward pain;
But we shall still be joined in heart,
And hope to meet again.

 

This glorious hope revives
Our courage by the way;
While each in expectation lives,
And longs to see the day.

 

From sorrow, toil and pain,
And sin, we shall be free,
And perfect love and friendship reign
Through all eternity.

Closing Prayer:
O God, fountain of love, pour love into our souls, that we may love those whom you love with the love you give us, and think and speak about them tenderly, meekly, lovingly; and so loving our brothers and sisters for your sake, may we grow in your love, and live in your love, that by living in your love we may live in you; for Jesus Christ’s sake. (E. B. Pusey, quoted from Classic Christian Prayers by Owen Collins)

together, day 2

Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.

Opening Prayer:
All praise and thanks to thee, most merciful God, for adopting us as thine own children, for incorporating us into thy holy Church, and for making us worthy to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.  Grant us, we pray, all things necessary for our common life, and bring us all to be of one heart and mind within thy holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 133

Scripture for the Day: Hebrews 10:19-25

Reading for Reflection: 

     Let him who cannot be alone beware of community.  Alone you stood before God when he called you; alone you had to answer the call; alone you had to struggle and pray. 

     But the reverse is also true: Let him who is not in community beware of being alone.  Into the community you were called; in the community of the called you bear your cross, you struggle, you pray.

     If you scorn the fellowship of the brethren, you reject the call of Jesus Christ, and thus your solitude can only be hurtful to you.

     Only in the fellowship do we learn to be rightly alone and only in aloneness do we learn to live rightly in the fellowship. (Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer)

 

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Blessed Be the Tie That Binds

 

Blessed be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like that to that above.

 

Before our Father's throne
We pour our ardent prayers;
Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one
Our comforts and our cares.

 

We share each other's woes,
Our mutual burdens bear;
And often for each other flows
The sympathizing tear.

 

When we asunder part,
It gives us inward pain;
But we shall still be joined in heart,
And hope to meet again.

 

This glorious hope revives
Our courage by the way;
While each in expectation lives,
And longs to see the day.

 

From sorrow, toil and pain,
And sin, we shall be free,
And perfect love and friendship reign
Through all eternity.

Closing Prayer:
O God, fountain of love, pour love into our souls, that we may love those whom you love with the love you give us, and think and speak about them tenderly, meekly, lovingly; and so loving our brothers and sisters for your sake, may we grow in your love, and live in your love, that by living in your love we may live in you; for Jesus Christ’s sake. (E. B. Pusey, quoted from Classic Christian Prayers by Owen Collins)

together, day 1

Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.

Opening Prayer:
All praise and thanks to thee, most merciful God, for adopting us as thine own children, for incorporating us into thy holy Church, and for making us worthy to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.  Grant us, we pray, all things necessary for our common life, and bring us all to be of one heart and mind within thy holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. (The Book of Common Prayer)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 133

Scripture for the Day: Ecclesiastes 4:7-12

Reading for Reflection: 

 How strange that we should ordinarily feel compelled to hide our wounds when we are all wounded!  Community requires the ability to expose our wounds and weaknesses to our fellow creatures.  It also requires the ability to be affected by the wounds of others… But even more important is the love that arises among us when we share, both ways, our woundedness. (A Different Drum by M. Scott Peck)

 

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Blessed Be the Tie That Binds

 

Blessed be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like that to that above.

 

Before our Father's throne
We pour our ardent prayers;
Our fears, our hopes, our aims are one
Our comforts and our cares.

 

We share each other's woes,
Our mutual burdens bear;
And often for each other flows
The sympathizing tear.

 

When we asunder part,
It gives us inward pain;
But we shall still be joined in heart,
And hope to meet again.

 

This glorious hope revives
Our courage by the way;
While each in expectation lives,
And longs to see the day.

 

From sorrow, toil and pain,
And sin, we shall be free,
And perfect love and friendship reign
Through all eternity.

Closing Prayer:
O God, fountain of love, pour love into our souls, that we may love those whom you love with the love you give us, and think and speak about them tenderly, meekly, lovingly; and so loving our brothers and sisters for your sake, may we grow in your love, and live in your love, that by living in your love we may live in you; for Jesus Christ’s sake. (E. B. Pusey, quoted from Classic Christian Prayers by Owen Collins)

wholeness, day 7

Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.

Opening Prayer:
Gracious and loving God, you know the deep inner patterns of my life that keep me from being totally yours.  You know the misformed structures of my being that hold me in bondage to something less than your high purpose for my life.  You also know my reluctance to let you have your way with me in these areas.  Hear the deeper cry of my heart for wholeness and by your grace enable me to be open to your transforming presence.  Lord, have mercy. (Invitation to a Journey by M. Robert Mulholland Jr.)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 122

Scripture for the Day: Isaiah 26:1-25

Reading for Reflection: 

Every summer, I go to the Boundary Waters, a million acres of pristine wilderness along the Minnesota-Ontario border.  My first trip, years ago, was a vacation, pure and simple.  But as I returned time and again to that elemental world of water, rock, woods, and sky, my vacation began to feel more like a pilgrimage to me—an annual trek to holy ground driven by spiritual need.  Douglas Wood’s meditation on the jack pine, a tree native to that part of the world, names what I go up north seeking: images of how life looks when it is lived with integrity.

     Thomas Merton claimed that “there is in all things…a hidden wholeness.”  But back in the human world—where we are less self-revealing than jack pines—Merton’s words can, at times, sound like wishful thinking.  Afraid that our inner light will be extinguished or our inner darkness exposed, we hide our true identities from each other.  In the process, we become separated from our own souls.  We end up living divided lives, so far removed from the truth we hold within that we cannot know the “integrity that comes from being what you are.”

     My knowledge of the divided life comes first from personal experience: I yearn to be whole, but divided- ness often seems the easier choice.  A “still, small voice” speaks the truth about me, my work, or the world.  I hear it and yet act as if I did not.  I withhold a personal gift that might serve a good end or commit myself to a project that I do not really believe in.  I keep silent on an issue I should address or actively break faith with one of my own convictions.  I deny my inner darkness, giving it more power over me, or I project it onto other people, creating “enemies” where none exist.

     I pay a steep price when I live a divided life—feeling fraudulent, anxious about being found out, and depressed by the fact that I am denying my own selfhood.  The people around me pay a price as well, for now they walk on ground made unstable by my divided- ness.  How can I affirm another’s identity when I deny my own?  How can I trust another’s integrity when I defy my own?  A fault line runs down the middle of my life, and whenever it cracks open—divorcing my words and actions from the truth I hold within—things around me get shaky and start to fall apart.

     But up north, in the wilderness, I sense the whole- ness “hidden in all things.”  It is in the taste of wild berries, the scent of sun-baked pine, the sight of the Northern Lights, the sound of water lapping the shore, signs of a bedrock integrity that is eternal and beyond all doubt.  And when I return to a human world that is transient and riddled with disbelief, I have new eyes for the wholeness hidden in me and my kind and a new heart for loving even our imperfections.

     In fact, the wilderness constantly reminds me that wholeness is not about perfection.  On July 4, 1999, a twenty-minute maelstrom of hurricane-force winds took down twenty million trees across the Boundary Waters.  A month later, when I made my annual pilgrimage up north, I was heartbroken by the ruin and wondered whether I wanted to return.  And yet on each visit since, I have been astonished to see how nature uses devastation to stimulate new growth, slowly but persistently healing her own wounds. 

     Wholeness does not mean perfection: it means embracing brokenness as an integral part of life.  Knowing this gives me hope that human wholeness—mine, yours, ours—need not be a utopian dream, if we can use devastation as a seedbed for new life. (A Hidden Wholeness by Parker J. Palmer)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Heal us, Emmanuel

 

Chorus: Heal us, Emmanuel, here we stand
Waiting to feel Thy touch
To deep wounded souls reach forth
Thy hand Oh Savior, we are such

 

Our faith is feeble, we confess
We faintly trust Thy word;
But will You pity us the less?
Be that far from You Lord!
(Repeat chorus)

 

Remember him who once applied
With trembling for relief;
"Lord, I believe," with tears he cried;
"O help my unbelief!"
(Repeat chorus)

 

She, too, who touched you in the press
And healing virtue stole,
Was answered, "Daughter, go in peace;
Thy faith has made thee whole."
(Repeat chorus)

 

Like her, with hopes and fears we come
To touch You if we may;
O send us not despairing home;
Send none unhealed away.
(Repeat chorus)

Closing Prayer:
My God, I wish to give myself to thee.  Give me the courage to do so.

                                                             ~Francois Fenelon

wholeness, day 6

Come to Stillness: Take a few minutes to allow your mind and heart to be still before God.

Opening Prayer:
Gracious and loving God, you know the deep inner patterns of my life that keep me from being totally yours.  You know the misformed structures of my being that hold me in bondage to something less than your high purpose for my life.  You also know my reluctance to let you have your way with me in these areas.  Hear the deeper cry of my heart for wholeness and by your grace enable me to be open to your transforming presence.  Lord, have mercy. (Invitation to a Journey by M. Robert Mulholland Jr.)

Psalm for the Week: Psalm 122

Scripture for the Day: Psalm 23:1-6

Reading for Reflection: 
Think of Jesus’ words to the disciples, “Peace (shalom) be with you” (John 20:19).
     Focus on the word peace.  It means wholeness and well-being.  The presence of the living Christ is speaking and breathing well-being and wholeness in the very center of your fear, your vulnerable place.  Stay in this living presence of the shalom as long as it seems right to you.  Let your vulnerable, defended place breathe it in. (Feed My Shepherds by Flora Slosson Wuellner)

Reflection and Listening: silent and written

Prayer: for the church, for others, for myself

Song for the Week: Heal us, Emmanuel

 

Chorus: Heal us, Emmanuel, here we stand
Waiting to feel Thy touch
To deep wounded souls reach forth
Thy hand Oh Savior, we are such

 

Our faith is feeble, we confess
We faintly trust Thy word;
But will You pity us the less?
Be that far from You Lord!
(Repeat chorus)

 

Remember him who once applied
With trembling for relief;
"Lord, I believe," with tears he cried;
"O help my unbelief!"
(Repeat chorus)

 

She, too, who touched you in the press
And healing virtue stole,
Was answered, "Daughter, go in peace;
Thy faith has made thee whole."
(Repeat chorus)

 

Like her, with hopes and fears we come
To touch You if we may;
O send us not despairing home;
Send none unhealed away.
(Repeat chorus)

Closing Prayer:
My God, I wish to give myself to thee.  Give me the courage to do so.

                                                             ~Francois Fenelon