Sunday November 13: Our private, self-made worlds come to an end

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  • Sunday November 13: Our private, self-made worlds come to an end
    • Posted by pbegeman on November 11, 2022 at 6:19 pm #129251

      To Practice: 

      • You may want to commit these words to memory and pray them regularly: “My Lord God, I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.” (Thomas Merton)
      • Or you may wish to practice lectio divina with “Blessing When the World is Ending,” adapted from Jan Richardson’s book, Circle of Grace. You may wish to read it aloud several times to embody the vibrations of the words and engage more of your senses:

      Look, the world is always ending somewhere.
      Somewhere the sun has come crashing down.
      Somewhere it has gone completely dark.
      Somewhere it has ended with the gun, the knife, the fist.
      Somewhere it has ended with the slammed door, the shattered hope.
      Somewhere it has ended with the utter quiet that follows the news from the phone, the television, the hospital room.
      Somewhere it has ended with the tenderness that will break your heart.
      But, listen, this blessing means to be anything but morose. It has not come to cause despair.
      It is here simply because there is nothing a blessing is better suited for than an ending, nothing that cries out more for a blessing than when a world is falling apart.
      This blessing will not fix you, will not mend you, will not give you false comfort; it will not talk to you about one door opening when another one closes.
      It will simply sit itself beside you among the shards and gently turn your face toward the direction from which the light will come, gathering itself about you as the world begins again.

       

       You may find the entire reflection here: https://mailchi.mp/coutreach/word-of-the-week-nov13

       

       

    • Posted by Kathleen M. Kelly on November 14, 2022 at 3:47 pm #129279

      Yesterday, while reading the Girardian Lectionary for Sunday’s readings, a portion grabbed my attention. It was about Zechariah being told to “embrace despair”. “then , you will be given a blessing” when I experience fully what is real within (my bodily experiencing), then, being fully present, I catch sight of God passing by….little blessings, big consequential blessings.

    • Posted by linda rhead on November 14, 2022 at 10:04 pm #129296

      Sunday November 13: Our private, self-made worlds come to an end

      “The blessing will not fix you…mend you…give you false comfort…it will simply sit itself beside you…and turn your face toward…the light…gathering itself about you as the world begins again.” Thank you, Jan Richardson, for reminding me it is in the shards, when I sit with my friend Job, that we are gathered in a blessing meant to sustain a new path through the pain. Can I bless the shards of my old life in order to see the direction from which the light will come? I pray Thy Will. Amen. <3 linda

    • Posted by Brenda Bayne on November 15, 2022 at 11:24 am #129309

      I too am grateful to Jan Richardson, and touched deeply.  Thank you WotW for choosing this piece and for all you do for us.

      Deep bow of gratitude ??

      • This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by Brenda Bayne. Reason: Correcting a spelling
    • Posted by Adeline Behm on November 18, 2022 at 5:33 pm #129409

      A discombobulating kind of week;  an unveiling, to pull the top of off something= Apocalypse; sitting side by side with this unknown blessing before this “slammed door of shattered hope” facing the direction of light with the help of the image provided, an apt image of the on fire forest ‘of my privatized worlds; I sit, sit, sit…..each consenting c.p. time, I sit, I sit….till…  receiving is happening,  KLINGING FREE kind of receiving…… just enough light to my next sit…..

    • Posted by Kathleen M. Kelly on November 18, 2022 at 6:09 pm #129413

      I want to hear you rightly, Adeline. However, it can only be through the lens available to me…. Yet, in prayer we are together in this great upward climb, by turns with falling with no sense of bottom , no real handrails other than our God. may you be kind to yourself in this time.. we are all supporting you in prayer. Kathleen

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