Lent Day 23:

[Thanks to the Bible Study group of staff, volunteers and guests at Gould Farm led by Rev. Liz Goodman for providing the spark of inspiration for this entry]

"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God".  Matthew 5:8

"This may well be the most important of all the beatitudes - from the perspective of wisdom it certainly is.  But what is purity of heart?  This is another of those concepts we have distorted badly in our very morality-oriented Christianity of the West.  For most people, purity of heart would almost certainly mean being virtuous, particularly in the sexual arena.  It would be roughly synonymous with chastity, perhaps even with celibacy.  But in wisdom teaching, purity means singleness, and the proper translation of this beatitude is, really, "Blessed are those whose heart is not divided" or "whose heart is a unified whole"...According to Jesus, this enlightenment takes place primarily within the heart.  when your heart becomes "single" - that is, when it desires one thing only, when it can live in perfect alignment with that resonant field of mutual yearning we called "the righteousness of God," then you "see God"."

from The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind by Cynthia Bourgeault

A suggestion for your prayer and meditation:

Heart of mine,
so often scattered into pieces,
be knit together.
Gaze upon the face of the Divine,
and know that there lies essential mercy.
Be a single entity
beating with each pulse
a rhythm of love,
yearning for God.

Lent Day 22:

Every element has a sound, 

an original sound from the order of God; 

all those sounds unite like the harmony from harps and zithers.

~ Hildegard of Bingen

A suggestion for your prayer and meditation:

Accept this offering of sound for your practice of prayer.
CLICK HERE

Lent Days 20 & 21:

The person who dives for pearls

is never satisfied to come up with shells.

Neither should those who aim at virtue

be satisfied

with honors and reputation. 

The more virtue parades itself,

the more it desires to be seen and acclaimed,

the less likely it is

to be real and true.

True virtue and personal attractiveness

are not rooted and supported

in pride, self-sufficiency, and vanity.

These produce a life lived

strictly for show.

It blooms brilliantly

and quickly withers away.

Having the appearance of virtue

may be fine for those

who do not seek it,

who accept it indifferently,

and who do not mistake the shell for the pearl.

But it can become very dangerous and hurtful

to those who cling to it,

and take delight in it.

For if someone

is truly wise, truly learned,

truly generous and noble,

their gifts will flower

in true humility and modesty.

A really great soul

will not waste itself on such empty goods

as rank, honor, and form.

It has higher aspirations.

A suggestion for your prayer and meditation:

All Through the Day; seek the pearl, not the shell.

from Set Your Heart Free; The Practical Spirituality of Francis de Sales

Lent Day 19:

“All mysticism is characterised by a passion for unity. To the mystic, true Being and Ultimate Reality are One…Christian mystics aspire to an intimate union of love with God, seeking God’s presence as the very ground of the soul. The human being is endowed with a spiritual sense that opens us inwardly, just as our physical senses open us outwardly.”

King, Ursula, Christian Mystics: Their Lives and Legacies through the Ages, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1988 p.15.

A suggestion for your prayer and meditation:

Contemplate:  Consider what inward "spiritual sense" means to you.  What does it mean to you to experience a "union of love with God"?  

Prayer:  I feel the earth beneath me, the air around me, and the presence of the Holy Spirit within.

Lent Day 18:

Well, I believed that there was a God because I was told it by my grandmother and later by other adults. But when I found that I knew not only that there was God but that I was a child of God, when I understood that, when I comprehended that, more than that, when I internalized that, ingested that, I became courageous. I dared to do anything that was a good thing. I dared to do things as distant from what seemed to be in my future. I became a translator in Serbo-Croat in Yugoslavia, and I conducted the Boston Pops. I taught at the Habima Theatre in Tel Aviv in Israel, and I worked as a journalist in Egypt with the only English news magazine in the Middle East. All of that, and I come from a little village in Arkansas, smaller than Picayune, (laughs) and I was a young black woman, trying to do all the good things. When I was asked to do something good, I often say yes, I'll try, yes, I'll do my best. And part of that is believing, if God loves me, if God made everything from leaves to seals and oak trees, then what is it I can't do?

~ Maya Angelou  (our oldest daughter's namesake)

(taken from interview conducted via teleconference, NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune and The (Baton Rouge) Advocate. http://www.nola.com/living/baton-rouge/index.ssf/2013/02/maya_angelou_discusses_her_fai.html )

A suggestion for your prayer and meditation:

God, help me to internalize, help me comprehend

that I am your child.

May I be encouraged by this reality.
May I courageously do good in this world 

because I believe

because I know

that You love me.

Amen.

Lent Day 17:

"...in Christian understanding truth is neither an object "out there" nor a proposition about such objects.  Instead, truth is personal, and all truth is known in personal relationships.  Jesus is a paradigm, a model of this personal truth.  In him, truth, once understood as abstract, principled, propositional, suddenly takes on a human face and a human frame.  In Jesus, the disembodied "word" takes flesh and walks among us.  Jesus calls us to truth, but not in the form of creeds or theologies or world-views.  His call to truth is a call to community - with him, with each other, with creation and its Creator.  If what we know is an abstract, impersonal, apart from us, it cannot be truth, for truth involves a vulnerable, faithful, and risk-filled interpenetration of the knower and the known".

from To Know As We Are Known; A Spirituality of Education by Parker J. Palmer

A suggestion for your prayer and meditation:

One of my closest friends in college and I used to sit for hours and contemplate together the meaning of truth with a capital "T".  As young evangelicals we felt a sense of urgency to understand and speak of ultimate truth with conviction and authority.  This book by Parker Palmer helped me move away from the need to be right toward the much more difficult necessity of living harmoniously with all of creation - even those parts I don't like so much, like those who think they have all the answers.

What does truth mean to you?
When have you felt connected to something true?
In what way does Christ embody truth in your life?
Spend five minutes matching your breath with these words: 

"Spirit of truth, wash over me"

Lent Day 16:

(photo by Olivia Finston-Fox)

This I know
That the only way to live
             Is like the rose
which lives
             without a why.

From Meditations with Meister Eckhart by Matthew Fox


A suggestion for your prayer and meditation:

I don't know if it is actually possible to live without a why but if I try to do so it does require that I stay completely in the present moment. No whys about the past or whys about the future.  Maybe a momentary why about the present but then the only reasonable answer is "to be" which as a follower of Christ translate "to love".

Imagine yourself as a rose in full bloom.
Take in the sun and rain
Endure the wind and cold
Be for a moment
Letting the sweet scent of love and compassion
The essence of life 
Rise.

(photo by Olivia Finston-Fox)