“This is a spiritual transformation. It’s a reorienting of life that places the welfare of our neighbors and of the planet as our foremost, our primary concerns, But more than that, it’s a complete change in where we look for the meeting of our needs. We count on God’s provision rather than our own. We are not fed by ‘Caesar,’ we are fed by Christ.”
“It’s a comfort to me to know that God’s heart and hands are big enough and loving enough to enclose all of us, no matter whether I think they are unworthy, rotten to the core, or uncaring about anyone other than themselves. God doesn’t always seem to protect the prophets who try to draw attention to things Christians and others should pay attention to, but that has often been the plight of prophets since the job of prophet first appeared.”
“Those things in our lives that we wrestle with, those places where our old instincts and our evolving new instincts grapple head to head with each other, are precisely the exercises we need to have the chance to choose our own forks in the road where we discover what God truly had in store for us. We seldom know it at the time we choose it, but time and insight often reveal them retrospectively.”
“This day may we too, especially, stand firm in witness to the love of Christ in the world. May we be emboldened ourselves, all of us, to live into our callings as witnesses and ministers of Jesus, as steadfast disciples even in the face of injustice and the attempts to silence the testimony of women in communities of faith throughout the ages.”
“Mary and Martha are each disciples of Jesus doing ministry in the world. Mary is off, out of town, away with other disciples doing ministry in the world. Martha is doing ministry in her home town and she is anxious to the point a panic attack. She is anxious because Mary is away, she wants her sister near her, home with her, doing ministry in their home town. She is worried for Mary and anxious. Jesus hears Martha and calls her back into her-self, back into her work and ministry in the town, while also assuring her that Mary is fine out in the world. In other words, Jesus supports each woman being who she is and doing the ministry they are doing as they are doing it.”
“Take heart, friend. We’re in this together. I give thanks for this last month, and for the month to come. May we find the strength to walk the road ahead of us trusting that we do not go alone.”
“The Sanhedrin and Pilate wearing their masks of righteousness. The powerful keeping their distance to the real needs of the people. And hand washing. To quell a riot, Pilate washes his hands.”
“I find myself taking the free moments in the midst of my activities to listen for what the Holy might be saying to me. While I am waiting for Rosean to walk down the hall on her walker, I let my senses drift out the window, embracing a soft breeze and the songs of many birds. When I am cooking dinner, I let my mind drift, listening for what meaningful current will carry my heart. Christ reaches out for me in the dancing of a leaf, the flash of a blue flower, the ringing of our neighbor’s wind chimes, the memory of a favorite hymn, or the whisper of an imagined conversation. The Holy One is always right there.”
“Jesus looked for leaders who were open-minded, willing to learn, to change, and to teach others. He looked for those who understood his teachings and then demonstrated them without expecting compliments or praise.”
“Just as Le Petit Prince tamed the little fox, centering prayer takes away the busy judgments of the mind and begins to tame it. The notion of taming the little foxes of our minds, and using the eyes of our heart to see rightly seems especially good for us right now. Our beautiful minds with its “unruly wills and affections” just like the prayer book says, often do need taming.”