O Lord open our lips, and we shall declare Your praise.

Almighty God,
to you all hearts are open,
all desires known,
and from you no secrets are hidden.
Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts
by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
that we may perfectly love you,
and worthily magnify your holy name,
through Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Opening Prayer The United Methodist Hymnal 1989 p. 6)

So three weeks in and I missed a Wednesday already! Today’s offering is short but sweet from St. Evagrios of Pontus (345-399 AD). His writings have been passed on to us through the Eastern Church’s principal text The Philokalia. [I will post on the significance of this text in the very near future.]

Today’s wisdom:

“If you are a theologian, you will pray truly. And if you pray truly you are a theologian.”

Buddy Miller is someone I first became familiar with via Emmylou Harris and Pattie Griffin. He has made some fine music himself and along with his talented wife Julie Miller. I came across this beautiful new song (so new it has yet to be named) and had to pass it along. (That Phil Madeira is one talented organ player!)

Help us find “home!”

ht Rustin

“a long loving gaze at the real…”

photo credit from Mike Raether.com

May we join with the Christian community in praying for our brothers and sisters of The Little Portion Hermitage in Berryville, Arkansas. As you may or may not be aware fire destroyed their chapel and common building and offices in the very early morning hours on April 29, 2008 - everything was a loss. Fortunately, from what I can tell no one was seriously injured.

Join your hearts in praying that love, grace, beauty and hope will spring from this community in the midst of their great loss.

You can read John Michael Talbot’s reflections on the tragedy here.

Do you get those crazy questions or thoughts that won’t let you go? They just keep rolling around in your mind - hitting you when you least expect it or hounding you when all you want to do is “veg-out?” Those mosquitoes on the mind just keep buzzing and buzzing in a threatening kind of way. I have had one of those suckers poking about my mind and heart the past couple of days - don’t know where it came from or when it will leave cause the question gets too close to “what it’s all about.” It is a question that I think right now I can’t answer the way I “should.” The answer is too revealing and disappointing.

I wish I could just smack this mosquito and put an end to this buzzing in my head.

The question:
Am I living from a posture or position of willfulness or willingness?

[Willfulness being a posture of stiff-armed distance that projects, “I am in control here;” and willingness is the position of the Gethsemane prayer, “not my will, but Thine be done.”]

The statement above is one I actually recall asking. I have thought it more often than I’d like along the Way as well. It is what motivated me to post the pictures in the previous post.

When you have been walking after God for 20+ years or far less for that matter - we can begin to think that merely accumulating years accounts for the growth of our soul. We know cognitively that this is false, but we can still believe it on other levels. So when the Mystery of the Universe comes in with a cosmic pruning shear or a chain saw and begins to lop off years of accumulated “growth” - it seems a fair question…

Is God killing me? Or keeping me?

Pruning and reshaping can sound pastoral and even “pretty” but as we go through the process we begin to see it as the great spiritual writer and mystic and poet St. John of the Cross states it, “the dark night of the soul.” We see it in light of the pain and desperation of Elijah’s flight to the desert. We begin to emote with our Lord in Gethsemane. And we begin to see beyond the burning hearts to the desperation and hopelessness of the pilgrims who couldn’t even recognize their Messiah and Master before them on the Emmaus road.

And if you have ever spent a sleepless night tossing and turning you know how LONG a night can last.

In these times of pruning and shaping the Spring time offers some hope. My faith can stop shaping me into question marks and for a moment I can rest and take hope in the buds and new life emerging around me.

So today I choose to say, the Potter prunes and reforms that I might in time reflect the Glory of my Maker even more.

In the beginning O God
You shaped my soul and set its weave
You formed my body
and gave it breath.
Renew me this day
in the image of your love.
O great God, grant me your light
O great God, grant me your grace
O great God, grant me your joy this day.
And let me be made pure
in the well of your health.
(prayer by J. Philip Newell from Celtic Prayers from Iona)

Made me smile.
Made me wonder.
Made me pray along with her.

Hope it helps you smile, wonder and pray, as well.

One way I attempt to remain attentive to God and to increase my awareness of God’s nearness and presence is through saying “breath prayers.” One breath prayer I say countless times a day is the Jesus Prayer. (I posted about this here.) There are many other breath prayers that I have said throughout a given day… The following ones all come from scripture and could accompany and punctuate your days as you attempt to increase the frequency and duration of your holy moments.

[Note: the first phrase is said while breathing in and the second phrase is intended to coincide with exhaling.)

* “Speak Lord… for your servant hears” (Samuel, 1 Samuel 3:9 & 10, NKJV)
* “Give thanks to the Lord… for he is good” (David, 1 Chronicles 16:34)
* “The Lord is my Shepherd… I shall not want” (David, Psalm 23:1, KJV)
* “Taste and see… that the Lord is good” (David, Psalm 34:8)
* “Be still… and know that I am God” (Korah’s family, Psalm 46:10, KJV)
* “The Lord… will be [my] confidence” (Solomon, Proverbs 3:26)
* “The joy of the Lord… is [my] strength” (Nehemiah 8:10)
* “Let it be to me… according to your word” (Mary, Luke 1:38, NKJV)
* “Our Father… Hallowed be thy name” (Jesus, Matthew 6:9, KJV)
* “Father… glorify your name” (Jesus, John 12:28, NKJV)
* “Father… into your hands I commit my spirit” (Jesus, Luke 23:46, NKJV)
* “Live by the Spirit… Keep in step with the Spirit” (Paul, Galatians 5:25)
* “To live is Christ… and to die is gain” (Paul, Philippians 1:21, KJV)
* “In Christ’s humility… consider others better than yourselves” (Paul, Philippians 2:3)
* “I want to know Christ… and the power of his resurrection” (Paul, Philippians 3:10)
* “My God… will meet all your needs” (Paul, Philippians 4:19)

[Note - passages from New International Version (NIV) unless otherwise indicated]

In getting started with these simple prayers intended to accompany you on “your way;” begin your day with about 5 minutes of quietly reciting and repeating your breath prayer (do so in a relaxed and unhurried manner - learning the rhythm and wording of your prayer). After this “initiation” in repeating your prayer as you go throughout your day - in idle moments, in anxious moments, in moments of joy and when loved ones come to mind - return to reciting your breath prayer.

Peace.

If we are going to be passionate about the God of the Universe we must come to terms with God on God’s terms not our own. A god of our own construct is no god - but an idol of our own creation. God must be appreciated as God truly is; revealed on the terms God has determined and employed: through the created order and through the special revelation of Scripture. We need our faulty and incomplete images of God refreshed and re-oriented often for our calibration to understand and appreciate God seems to be easily skewed. The prescription for me is regular time in reflection/meditation on a portion of Scripture accompanied by being attentive to God’s presence in silence. Through doses of scriptural reality and times just “being with God” my life is reordered and my passion for God reignited.

“The Church has surrendered her once lofty concept of God and has substituted for it one so low, so ignoble, as to be utterly unworthy of thinking, worshipping men. … We have lost our spirit of worship and our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring silence.” (A. W. Tozer. The Knowledge of the Holy. The Attributes of God: Their Meaning in the Christian Life. New York: Harper and Row. 1961. pg. 6).