Good Afternoon and Blessings
Our hopes of gathering again are expanding!! The Spirit within is on the move, we have a greater desire for the coming resurrection, and we continue to rest in our Higher Power. God remains a mystery, our faith has not waivered, and appreciation and love for our sisters and brothers in Christ has magnified. We truly are gifted to have each other, to have hope, faith, and love.
Keep safe, Keep connected.
Blessings and the strength of Love be with you.
Rev. Mary,
Reading Excerpt from “Fragments of Your Name” by Joyce Rupp
The ability to commune with the Divine One sustained the brave Jewish woman Eddie Hillisum, who died at the hands of the Nazi in Auschwitz at the age of 29. In “An Interrupted Life”, she writes in one of her journal entries, “I repose in myself. And that part of myself, the deepest and richest part in which I repose, is what I called ‘God’.” This deep, rich part of our inner being is the nucleus of the mystic Thomas Merton’s relationship with the Holy One. ‘God’ most certainly remains full of mystery but is equally knowable through the daily revelations of goodness that we experience. Merton refers to this specifically in “Zen and the Birds of Appetite”, where he notes that “the personal God” is “the deepest centre of consciousness and unification”. He then goes on to explain that we developed this relationship “by the active and creative awareness of love which is our highest good”.
Prayer
Excerpt from: Iona Community
Creator of the cosmos, Creator of the commonplace,
through your grace we seek to do what is required of us.
God of the mundane, God of mystery,
through your grace we seek to do justice.
God-in-the-midst, God on the margins,
through your grace we seek to love kindness.
God of power and plenty, God of the dispossessed,
through your grace we seek to walk humbly in your way.
Give us the courage in all things, at all times,
to act with compassion, justice and generosity,
through Jesus Christ.
Amen