PRESENCE
The
Real Presence is just that, real and life- transforming. Nor are the conditions
for the manifestation of his splendors out of the reach of any of us.
-Albert Edward Day
We
may ignore, but we can nowhere evade, the presence of God. The world is crowded
with him. He walks everywhere incognito. And the incognito is not always hard
to penetrate. The real labour is to remember, to attend. In fact, to come
awake, still more, to remain awake.
-C.
S. Lewis
2
GOOD SOIL: MANY DEATHS
The more deaths: the richer the soil.
The harder the winter: the better the spring.
3
MANIFEST
The simplest and oldest way, then in which God manifests
Himself is not through people but through and in the earth itself.
As
the reaper of his own harvest, man learns both by suffering and bliss.
-James
Allen
4
NOW
The
spiritual life is not a life before, after, or beyond our everyday existence.
No, the spiritual life can only be real when it is lived in the midst of the
pains and joys of the here and now.
-Henri
Nouwen
5
CIRCLE OF LIGHT
Life,
light, love.
These
are the same words which indicate the Person of the Father, the Person of the
Son, and the person of the Holy Spirit.
Defending
life, witnessing light, living out love
-Carlo
Carretto
6
FIRE
OF GOD
The
fire of God, which is his essential being, his love, his creative power, is a
fire unlike its earthly symbol in this, that it is only at a distance it
burns- that the farther from him it burns the worse, and that when we turn and begin to
approach him, the burning begins to change to comfort, which comfort will grow
to such bliss that the heart at length cries out with a gladness no other
gladness can reach, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is nothing
upon earth that I desire beside thee!"
-George
MacDonald
7
COME
God
takes us out of the mean and narrow ways in which we relate, to open before us
the great open spaces of potential for our lives. But this can only happen if
we expose our true selves to His love.
-James
Houston
8
MARANATHA
God
of hope, whose spirit gives light and power to your people, empower is to
witness to your name in all the nations, to struggle for your own justice
against all principalities and powers and to persevere with faith and humor in
the tasks that you have given to us. Without you we are powerless. Therefore we
cry together: Maranatha.
-Thomas
G. Pettepiece
9
RECEIVE
Religion
is an awareness of God. It is first of all a desire for what God gives us. It
is a free and unforced reaching out for the mercy and love that God offers.
You
think religion is a matter of knowing things and doing things. It is not. It is
a matter of letting God do something for you: letting him love you, letting him
save you, letting him bless you, letting him command you. Your part is to look
and believe, to pray and obey.
-Eugene
Peterson
10
GATHER
Messiah
is eternally and tirelessly bringing everything and everyone together.
-Eugene
Peterson
11
ANOTHER
WAY TO WRESTLE
Another
way to wrestle
To
struggle used to be
To
grab with both hands
and shake
and twist
and turn
and push
And shove and not give in
But
wrest an answer from it all
As
Jacob did a blessing.
But
there is another way
To
struggle with an issue, a question-
Simply
to jump
off
into the abyss
and find ourselves
floating
falling
tumbling
being led
slowly and gently
but surely
to the answers God has for us-
to watch the answers unfold
before our eyes and still
to be a part of the unfolding.
But,
oh! The trust
necessary
for this new way!
Not
to be always reaching out
For
the old hand-holds.
- Susan W. N. Ruach
12
LIFE
There
is a world to enjoy, a salvation in which to rejoice. God gives, "Grace is
everywhere" (George Bernanos). We receive and explore. We do not nullify
the grace of God.
-Eugene
Peterson
13
ETERNITY
ALDREADY ADVANCES TO RECEIVE US
Eternity
already advances to receive us. Why do we delay to advance while the light of
the Father of mercies shines for us. Let us hasten to reach the kingdom of God.
-Fenelon
14
Prayer:
End of Words
We,
too, become tired, deadly tired, of ourselves, of others, of the world, of
life, of everything! Then it is blessed to know of a place where we can lay our
tired head and heart, our heavenly Father's arms, and say to him, "I can
do no more. And I have nothing to tell you. May I lie here a while and rest?
Everything will soon be well again if I can only rest in your arms a
while."
-O.
Hallesby
15
RECEIVE
AND OFFER
It
is in solitude, in that lonely life alone with God, in profound recollection of
soul, in forgetfulness of all created things, that God gives himself to the
soul that thus gives itself whole and entire to him. Later the soul will bring
forth exactly in the measure in which the inner life is developed in it.
-
Charles de Foucauld
16
GOD
IN EVERYTHING, HIDDEN IN A CLOUD
To live by faith, then, is to live in joy, confidence,
certainty and trust in all there is to do and suffer each moment as ordained by
God. However mysterious it may seem, it is in order to awaken and maintain this
living faith that God drags the soul through tumultuous floods of so much
suffering, trouble, perplexity, weariness and ruin. For faith is needed to
discover in all this God and that divine life which can neither be seen nor
felt but, nevertheless, in some mysterious way, unmistakably reveals itself.
Death in the body, damnation in the soul, ruin in the world are the nourishment
and support of faith, which breaking through these, holds on to the hand of God
offering life wherever there is no sign of sin. Faithful souls, full of
confidence, must see God in everything, hidden in a cloud, whose closer
presence disturbs and scares the senses. (SPM p. 23)
17
THY
KINGDOM COME
What
concerns me is being with you, making you whole. I conquer evil by submitting
myself to it, receiving it into myself, and in that act- crucifixion- the power
is broken and salvation is accomplished.
-Eugene
Peterson
18
A
PART OF GOD
You see, God is actually in the flowers and the growing
grass and all the little chirping, singing things, He made everything out of
Himself and somehow he put a part of Himself into everything. ( HGS p. 31)
19
BANQUET
Steep
yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provision.
-Luke
12:22
Enjoy
the blessing! Revel in the goodness. Stand in awe of God’s Yes!
-Psalm
128:2
20
FALL
We
mostly spend those lives conjugating three verbs: to Want, to Have, and to Do.
Craving, clutching, and fussing, on the material, political, social, emotional,
intellectual- even on the religious- plane, we are kept in perpetual unrest:
forgetting that none of these verbs have any ultimate significance, except so
far as they are transcended by and included in, the fundamental verb, to Be:
and that Being, not wanting, having, and doing, is the essence of a spiritual
life.
-Evelyn
Underhill
21
WAITING
Watch,
wait and hope. "I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I
hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than watchman for the morning, more than
watchman for the morning."
-Psalm
130:6
22
JOY
The
gloom of the world is but a shadow; behind it, yet within our reach is joy:
take Joy.
-Fra
Giovanni
23
ENJOY
Poverty
is the ability to enjoy the world to the full because I am not anxious about
losing a bit of it or acquire a bit of it.
-H.
A. Williams
37
HOPE
People
who hope never know what’s coming next. They expect it is going to be good,
because God is good.
A
person with hope is alive to God. Hope is powerful. It is stimulating. It keeps
us on tiptoe, looking for the unexpected.
-Eugene
Peterson
38
HUMILITY
Humility
is the attitude of one who is like the soil. Humility comes from the Latin word
humus, fertile ground. The fertile ground is there, unnoticed, taken for
granted, always there to be trodden upon. It is silent, inconspicuous, dark and
yet it is always ready to receive any seed, ready to give it substance and
life. The more lowly, the more fruitful, because it becomes really fertile when
it accepts all the refuse of the earth. It is so low that nothing can soil it,
abase it, humiliate it; it has accepted the last place and cannot go any lower.
In that position nothing can shatter the soul's serenity, it's peace and joy.
-Anthony
Bloom
39
STAND
STILL
The
LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still.
-Exodus
14:14
40
ETERNITY
We
don’t just live for now; we live for eternity.
It
is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they
have become so ineffective in this. Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown
in; aim at earth and you will get neither.
-C.
S. Lewis
41
AWE
Awe
is a way of being in rapport with the mystery of all reality. The secret of
every being is the divine care and concern that are invested in it. Something
sacred is at stake in every event.
-Abraham
Joshua Heschel
