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Sunday May 15: How to Love
How am I called to practice loving someone difficult or different from myself? I include the third strand from Leviticus 19:18 to the cord: love myself. I can easier love God and neighbor before I love myself. It wasn’t until I began to truly see myself as beloved of God and love myself that I was able to begin to think of how best to love opponents.
My first step is to bless them (Pierre Pradervand’s for example). For example, USPS has misdelivered three packages in the past two months to unidentified addresses other than mine. I’ve blessed the recipient in their integrity, financial security, may my parcel be a blessing to them, etc. Blessing eased my annoyance.
Last night at dusk a young man delivered one of the parcels to my front porch and left. Gratitude and more blessings pour onto this unknown opponent. I’m blessing the postal service employees before I go to the distribution center to inquire after the other two parcels. It is a very small gesture with great healing power. Let us pour love’s energy into our hurting world. <3 linda
This week I took as my active prayer affirmation the phrase “we can even be a grace place for others”. Conversations with family and friends became oases of rest and refreshment. As I sat in prayer, God filled me with grace to pour into my auto service advisor, the grocery store employees, etc. And I started to practice being a grace place to those who are not seen yet encounter daily: people working behind the scenes to maintain websites, online merchants, security for banking transactions. Brought my frustration levels with “computer glitches” down to near zero. Who knew? <3 linda
Sunday May 1: The Grace Place
What do I learn from my breakfast date with Christ? My day flows naturally from Christ’s suggested timing for my tasks. I can move from prayer to mopping floors, exercise to toilet scrubbing, prayer to creative writing to evening meal preparation. Pause. Breathe. Listen. Respond. Another day with full nets needing mending. <3 linda
Sunday April 24: Resurrected Presence
What do I hear in the silence for my journey now? Breakdown can be break through if I can see new life struggling to emerge, within me and within our world. Father Richard’s “we want transformation without cost” aligns to Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s concept of “cheap grace”. That first breakdown to break through was terrifying and freeing at the same time. It allowed following transformations to proceed with more of a memorial service for my old life. Lord, keep me every transforming to Your glory and my joy. Amen. <3 linda
Sunday April 17: Two Movements of Resurrection
Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! How can I bear the Christ risen in me to a world needing light? First, I nurture the flame of Love with daily centering prayer practice. Then, I trust whatever next practical thing I do is God’s will for me. Household chores, posting reflections here, celebrating Easter with family…all to God’s glory and my joy (to paraphrase Thomas Merton). <3 linda
Sunday April 10: Empty
“We do not live in a simple world.” Loving one’s enemy is not simple. The late Dr. James E. Loder defined love as a “non-possessive delight in the particularity of the other.” I learn to delight in my own particularities be they pleasant or painful, during prayer. My role as a contemplative is to pray and release myself into the Silence until the particularities of all can be acknowledged and loved. This is hard in the face of brutalities and injustices, yet imperative for healing myself and the world. Not my will, but Thine, be done. <3 linda
Sunday April 3: Taking The Stone Away; A Life-Giving Rhythm
I pondered where I would locate a stone as I brought out my Anglican prayer beads. Inside the black cloth bag is a small piece of polished citrine, placed with the beads during a period of healing prayers. I place the citrine between my left palm and thigh as I center. What a wonderful daily reminder to examine what is being called forth in me from death to life. <3 linda
Sunday March 27: Eyes of the Heart, Eyes of Faith
Recommitting to twice daily Centering Prayer keeps me focused on what is important on my journey to love others. I have been near-sighted since a very young age, unable to see far, the big picture. As I aged the inability to read small print took my vision correction to a new level – bifocals. As I recommit today, my “visual” going forward is I need twice daily Centering Prayer as much (if not more) than I need my glasses. I want to allow Christ’s Spirit in me to perceive the same Spirit in others every day. <3 linda
Sunday March 20: Living Water, Living Grace
The affirmation I carry this week is “trust the Mystery”. On one level the Samaritan woman had a distrust of Jesus: “how can you?” Only when the conversation deepens and Jesus makes her known to herself can she trust Jesus. Trust, then proclaim her trust to her village. This week, I trust the Mystery to provide opportunities to proclaim my trust as well. <3 linda
Sunday March 13: The Tipping Point
The beatitude “blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9) is the very first Bible verse I memorized. As a teen I had little comprehension what peacemaking entailed. Now, having a foundation of silence and contemplative prayer, I have a better understanding of Father Keating’s “prefect harmony of immense complexity”. To “co-create the cosmos together with God”, making our own corners of Eden a little cleaner and brighter, is a very real, practical and necessary ministry to aid global transformation…one prayer session at a time. <3 linda
Sunday March 6: Say The Word
I need regular knocking off my throne of my false self. God is pleased to gently (or not so) remove me and regain rightful ownership. I allow God’s Presence and action to work in me by faith, so God may “go to work and set things right”. I trust if my actions are rooted in God and grounded in love for others, when I lean toward my false self, God will correct my course and reset me on Love’s path. <3 linda
Sunday February 27: Plain Talking
What I need to grow in spiritual awareness and day-to day compassion is Father Keating’s famous “Presence and action within me.” Centering prayer practice feeds my soul. Daily interactions with others deplete it as I offer God’s love shipping clerk, grocery employees, etc. Continual filling and offering. I have recently added yoga as a practice and find my being well watered with this new rule of life. Happy am I to regularly prune that which no longer serves to add that which nourishes God in me and God in you. <3 linda
Sunday February 20: Refracting The Light
How is the light of Christ refracted through the prism of my life? As a prism breaks light down into its component colors, then my own brokenness must serve as the prism through which Christ’s love shines. Shortcomings is another way to say broken: If I were whole, I would not be short. Yet, my viewing others with love, through my shortcomings, allows me to see Christ in them more clearly. It is as if God has allowed my pain to make me whole by passing it through Divine Love’s prism. <3 linda
Sunday February 13: The Science of Love
How blessed we are to be co-creators of human evolution. Via our centering prayer practice and with God’s grace, we heal ourselves of familial patterns of behavior which no longer serve us. Our loving circle includes ourselves, our ancestors, and generations to come. This is the toughest job we will ever love! <3 linda
Sunday February 6: Risk Deep Waters
Breathe in My peace.
Breathe out – No feeling is final.
Breathe in new life.
Breathe out – don’t be afraid.
<3 linda
