By Loving One
Presence in the darkness
Divine illumination
Long-awaited liberator
Come and dwell among us.
Come and make a home within us.
Come and show us the way that leads to life.
Tag: Prayer
Prayer for Mr. Trump, the human being.
By Bill-Wylie-Kellermann
O Wind of Spirit who moved across the face of chaos,
breathing life into creation and humanity.
Heal this man, afflicted in his presidency,
from the very illness he has unleashed in mockery.
Defend him from the Power of Death by which he is so enthralled
and so embraced, as to set it upon countless others
whom we pray you protect as well.
For the time and sake of mercy,
withhold the wrath of your judgement and bring him instead
into the fullness of his humanity, painful though it be.
When his breath comes easy and he wakes, may truth dawn upon him like a bolt.
A Complaint Before the Court of Coronavirus Justice
By a communal lament
Blessed are you, Lord our God, Keeper of the Universe.
You have thus far kept us alive and preserved us.
Though Sister Death arrives with swiftness now into our circles of care,
We praise You and remember that You alone
are keeper of the Book of Life.
It is You who sends Your Angel Death into the world dressed as a broom;
You who fashioned us from earth, mixing straw and mud with Your own breath.
You blew Time into our nostrils, making our days like fruitful herbs,
which green up in morning, flower and flourish at noon, then fade by close of day.
In humility and grief, we stand before You now, mindful of all we have not loved.
We acknowledge through tears and fears, through our grief, sharp or dulled,
that You alone are God Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.
We, though many, are not gods. And now, small and frightened, we stand
before the power of viral death that sweeps through the corners of our world.
We are small and afraid of the media’s measuring stick of dead and infected.
We are small and afraid before the needs of our family, neighbors, and congregations.
We are small and afraid listening to tales told by rulers who are full of sound and fury.
We are small and afraid in the face of scarcity and those who demand to be paid.
We are small and afraid before our isolated, individual selves—
self-quarantined, sheltering in place, locked down—and we long for the casual
affections of others. Continue reading “A Complaint Before the Court of Coronavirus Justice”
Prepping for Ash Wednesday A supplication
By Ken Sehested, borrowing from St. Augustine and Isaiah 55:12
Return to your heart, O you transgressors,
and hold fast to the One who made you.
Stand with the Beloved and your footing
shall be firm. Rest in the Merciful One
and you shalt be buoyed.
Where do you go along these rugged
paths, pilgrim, so far from home yet so
winsomely loved? Be clear about what
you seek, and where you seek, for the
beatific life cannot be found in the land
of illusion. Continue reading “Prepping for Ash Wednesday A supplication”
God is with us
By Lydia Wylie-Kellermann
Offered at Day House Catholic Worker in response to Joseph’s dream.
In the shadows of our dreams
When we are ready to dismiss so much, so quickly
When we’d rather save ourselves
From ridicule and mystery,
Even then
Even there
…..God is with us. Continue reading “God is with us”
Pentecost: Bellies in the Mud
By Lydia Wylie-Kellermann
Reflection offered at Day House Catholic Worker in Detroit on June 9, 2019
Psalm 104
Acts 2:1-11
John 20: 19-2
I admit that I come to these readings today carrying my own fear and anxiety. The kind of fear that can force you to lock yourself in a room. I’ve been scrolling through too many headlines these past few weeks that make it hard to breath. Continue reading “Pentecost: Bellies in the Mud”
Send me
By Ken Sehested
It was a time of great turmoil in the land. The Spirit of God bypassed all the famous leaders and came to me with a dream.
And I saw the Ruler of All Creation sitting on a throne, high and lofty, with majesty filling the sky as far as the eye could see.
Angels filled the air, shouting, “Holy, holy, holy! Just and Righteous and Merciful is God’s name!” Continue reading “Send me”
Prayer
A brief-but-brilliant reminder from John Main (1926-1982), Benedictine monk and master of mantra meditation. This is from his 1981 talk “The Present Christ” where he exhorted those gathered at the Montreal abbey that forgiveness of sin was not the response of a judge but instead the embrace of a Lover.
…prayer is not talking-to but being-with.
We Are Already Related
From Walter Wink in Just Jesus: My Struggle to Become Human (2014):
In the integral worldview, however, prayer is given the place of honor in the life of the spirit. Since we are all already related to each other, we are immediate to each other. So prayer becomes the most natural thing in the world. We don’t have to pump ourselves up in order to release a charge of healing energy. The other persons don’t even have to know we are praying for them. Because we are already related, and we are one body in God, God’s healing power is already there and here (but there is no distance). Our prayer is simply a matter of opening the situation to God.
Come, you whose lamps are blazing
By Kat Friesen
Gathering
Come, you whose lamps are blazing,
and come, you whose lamps are dim.
Come, salty ones, and come,
you whose lives are feeling bland.
Come worship the One who was, and is, and is to come,
our God who restores our lamps with oil,
our God who renews our saltiness,
so that together we may be a city alight with praise,
a city that makes known the Glory of the Lord!
Confessing/reconciling
God who sees the needs of the oppressed,
We confess that our piety, our prayers and our habits are empty without justice.
God who hears the cries of the workers, of the homeless, of the hungry,
We confess our fear of risk, our fear of being made vulnerable
in the face of so much need.
Assure us again of Your healing in our weakness,
of Your abundance in our sharing and in our receiving.
Radical Discipleship 