pray share chat Nov 1, 2023 Communion of saints

 1.  Meditation

https://youtu.be/N_V1wP7q3l4?si=3yMsHlmoaApJQAce

2,  Song

https://youtu.be/wRwfTS_Ne0o?si=OLOoPejpGzogf2ZW

3.  Narrative

The Communion of Saints
Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, “Father, . . . I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one. I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” —John 17:1, 20-26 [1]

This beautiful prayer for union is from Jesus’ Last Supper address to his disciples. It might be the highest level of mystical teaching in the entire New Testament. Here Jesus connects everything: he in his Father, the Father in you, you in God, God in him, God in the world, and you in the world. It’s all one.

I think this is the core realization of every saint. Saints see things in their connectedness and wholeness. They don’t see things as separate. It’s all one, and yet like the Trinity, it is also different. What you do to the other, you do to yourself; how you love yourself is how you love your neighbor; how you love God is how you love yourself; how you love yourself is how you love God. How you do anything is how you do everything.

Faith is not simply seeing things at their visible, surface level, but recognizing their deepest meaning. To be a person of faith means you see things—people, animals, plants, the earth—as inherently connected to God, connected to you, and therefore, most worthy of love and dignity. That’s what Jesus is praying for: that you could see things in their unity, in their connectedness.

I will go so far as to say that the more you can connect, the more of a saint you are. The less you can connect, the less transformed you are. If you can’t connect with people of other religions, classes, or races, with your “enemies” or with those who are suffering, with people who are disabled, with LGBTQ folks, or with anyone who is not like you—well, to put it very bluntly, you’re not very converted. You’re still in the kindergarten of faith. We have a lot of Christians who are still in kindergarten, walking around the world with their old politics and economics. They have not allowed the Risen Christ to fully transform their lives. Truly transformed individuals are capable of a universal recognition. They see that everything is one.

You don’t go to heaven; you learn how to live in heaven now. And no one lives in heaven alone. Either you learn how to live in communion with the human race and with all that God has created, or, quite simply, you’re not ready for heaven. If you want to live an isolated life, trying to prove that you’re better than everybody else or believing you’re worse than everybody else, you are already in hell. You have been invited—even now, even today, even this moment—to live in the Communion of Saints, in the Presence, in the Body, in the Life of the eternal and eternally Risen Christ.

Gateway to Silence:
We are already in union with God.

References:
[1] John 17:1, 20-26, New American Standard Bible.

Adapted from Richard Rohr, “Seeing Is Not Always Recognizing,” homily, May 8, 2016, https://cac.org/seeing-not-always-recognizing/.

4.  Prayer 

“For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” -Romans 12:4-5

Father, thank you that we are not one person but one people. You have made us individuals with unique backgrounds, stories, gifts and passions; but you have given these all to work under the umbrella of the church. Each unique gifting brings joy to us as we use the gift and blessing to those around us. What a beautiful gift this is! Help us to rejoice in the gifts of others and allow them to bless us rather than be covetous and resentful.

5.  Meditation

https://youtu.be/BAvrJ5MiJxE?si=7hkkbO8Pqfj-Rhn5

6.  Song

https://youtu.be/vZYQZPHABY8?si=PE3gOGLNkctF7fDi

Pray share chat 10/25/2023 Transformation

1. Meditation 

 https://youtu.be/xv-ejEOogaA?si=Y4eS_uifhWSCXlaI

2. Song

https://youtu.be/qBl2rPMP49Q?si=tbd2V4hSLF8vNHpa

3 .  Narrative 

When Things Fall Apart
Friday, December 29, 2017

The word change normally refers to new beginnings. But transformation more often happens not when something new begins but when something old falls apart. The pain of something old falling apart—disruption and chaos—invites the soul to listen at a deeper level. It invites and sometimes forces the soul to go to a new place because the old place is not working anymore. The mystics use many words to describe this chaos: fire, darkness, death, emptiness, abandonment, trial, the Evil One. Whatever it is, it does not feel good and it does not feel like God. We will do anything to keep the old thing from falling apart.

This is when we need patience, guidance, and the freedom to let go instead of tightening our controls and certitudes. Perhaps Jesus is describing this phenomenon when he says, “It is a narrow gate and a hard road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7:14). Not accidentally, he mentions this narrow road right after teaching the Golden Rule. Jesus knows how much letting go it takes to “treat others as you would like them to treat you” (7:12).

Transformation usually includes a disconcerting reorientation. Change can either help people to find a new meaning, or it can cause people to close down and turn bitter. The difference is determined by the quality of our inner life, or what we call “spirituality.” Change of itself just happens; spiritual transformation is an active process of letting go, living in the confusing dark space for a while, and allowing yourself to be spit up on a new and unexpected shore. You can see why Jonah in the belly of the whale is such an important symbol for many Jews and Christians.

In the moments of insecurity and crisis, “shoulds” and “oughts” don’t really help; they just increase the shame, guilt, pressure, and likelihood of backsliding. It’s the deep “yeses” that carry you through. Focusing on something you absolutely believe in, that you’re committed to, will help you wait it out.

Love wins over guilt any day. It is sad that we settle for the short-run effectiveness of shaming people instead of the long-term life benefits of grace-filled transformation. But we are a culture of progress and efficiency, impatient with gradual growth. God’s way of restoring things interiorly is much more patient—and finally more effective. God lets Jonah run in the wrong direction, until this reluctant prophet finds a long, painful, circuitous path to get back where he needs to be—in spite of himself! Looking in your own “rear-view mirror” can fill you with gratitude for God’s work in your life.

Gateway to Silence:
You make all things new.

Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr with John Feister, Hope Against Darkness: The Transforming Vision of Saint Francis in an Age of Anxiety (Franciscan Media: 2002), 69.

4. Prayer

In Your presence, I find solace and peace beyond measure. Wrap Your loving arms around me, quieting the noise and chaos within. Help me to find stillness in Your embrace and to trust that You are working all things together for my good.

As I seek a clear mind, Lord, infuse my thoughts with positivity, hope, and faith. Replace any negative or fearful thinking with Your promises and the truth of Your love. Open my heart to gratitude and joy, even in the midst of challenges.

5.  Meditation 

https://youtu.be/ka_Q14BPdGs?si=9kqWTRhd5i-MlYMy

6.  Song
https://youtu.be/Jvfo1r2Clwo?si=Fj7bno6kDpF0DYip

pray share chat 10/18/2023 Beholding

 

1.  Meditation 

https://youtu.be/LLeqY9ingRY?si=O0x1wwfJAzJAuCP5

2.  Song

https://youtu.be/SSTH3SCQZlc?si=CqIQayyD18KkhCes

3.  Narrative 

https://www.thelivingwater.com.au/blog/beholding-when-deep-calls-unto-deep-and-joy-leaps-in-the-heart

By Roland Ashby

Behold, I bring you good tidings! (Luke 2:10)

“The glory of God is a human being fully alive; and to be alive consists in beholding God.” So said St Irenaeus in the second century.

While the first part of the quotation, “The glory of God is a human being fully alive” is often quoted, the second part, which makes clear that being alive is conditional upon beholding God, is often ignored. Perhaps because it is not understood.

“The word Behold is arguably the most important word in the Bible”, argues theologian Maggie Ross, who laments that while it occurs over 1,300 times in the King James Bible, it has disappeared in most modern translations. “And with it have vanished the contemplative threads that are woven into the original languages.”[1]

It’s important, she believes, because it “recognises that something outside ordinary experience is happening.” It describes, she says, an experience or encounter that is outside the mind’s “conceptual and linguistic framework and therefore its ability to describe”.[2]

Moreover, “Behold is a word that alerts us to pause, however briefly, to be vigilant, because something new, something startling, is about to be revealed.”[3]

It describes a process, she believes, in which the mind is “temporarily brought to silence”, a death which leads to “the arrival of a new perspective”, a resurrection. “If we live in beholding we continually live in a new creation.”[4]

Franciscan priest Richard Rohr says that someone who is truly beholding “is silenced with the utter gratuity of a thing. We let it give us a leap of joy in the heart and in the eye.”

“Once we decide to behold,” he adds, “we are available for awe and wonder, to be present to what is, without the filter of our preferences or the false ledger of judging things as important or not important. A much broader, much deeper, and much wider field of perception opens up, becoming an alternative way of knowing and enjoying. The soul sees soul everywhere else too: ‘deep calls unto deep,’ as the psalmist says (42:7). Centre knows centre, and this is called ‘love.’

“Beholding happens when we stop trying to ‘hold’ and allow ourselves to ‘be held’ by the other. We are completely enchanted by something outside and beyond ourselves. Maybe we should speak of ‘behelding’ because, in that moment, we are being held more than really holding, explaining, or understanding anything by ourselves. We feel ourselves being addressed more than addressing something else... it becomes an epiphany and the walls of your world begin to expand.”[5]

St Irenaeus believed that contemplation of nature is “the initial step for all of us to come to knowledge of God”. So I invite you, when you next take a walk or work in the garden, to pause and behold something which takes your eye. It may be a flower, a tree, the sky, a bird. Continue looking at it until, as it were, you are seeing it for the first time. What do you notice that you haven’t noticed before? Be totally present to it, beyond any label or concept, and let all thoughts of past and future fall away.

Allow time for wonder and enchantment to rise, for “joy to leap in heart and eye”, and be filled with gratitude for its “utter gratuity”.

 

 

[1] Maggie Ross, Silence: A User’s Guide, Volume 2: Application (Darton Longman Todd: 2018) 132-133.

[2] ‘Freefalling in the love of God’: an interview with Maggie Ross, published on Living Water on 22 October 2020. See: https://www.thelivingwater.com.au/blog/freefalling-in-the-love-of-god

[3] Maggie Ross, Silence: A User’s Guide, Volume 2: Application (Darton Longman Todd: 2018) 129.

[4] Ibid. 129.

[5] Adapted from Richard Rohr, Just This (CAC Publishing: 2017), 99–101.

4. Prayer

Oh Lord, You know my heart better than I know it myself. You know my struggles and You hold each hope and fear in Your caring hands. Teach me, LORD, to be still and to know that You are God. 

You are in Your holy temple; let all the earth, including my mind and heart, be silent before You, resting in Your sovereignty. Like Elijah, teach me to wait for Your still, small voice and quiet the earthquakes and blazing fires in my life. 

Replace my restless doing with inner calm, and help me, like Mary, to sit at Your feet in quiet adoration even if there are a million things clamoring for my attention. Just as You spoke over the tumultuous sea and storms, so speak over my heart Your shalom. 

“Peace. Be still,” You said to them, and immediately they quieted. Teach my heart to cease striving and to know– to yada, to have an intimate and deep, personal, first-hand experience–that You are God. 

Help me cultivate a quiet heart, like a baby content in its mother’s arms, no longer coming to You with a “gimme” spirit but instead calmly nestling against Your heart. Help me find quietness  and happiness in intimate communion with You. You will be exalted over all the earth, and You’ve got the details of my day covered. I can rest in You. 

Amen

5. Meditation

https://youtu.be/AATOBmQ93JQ?si=P-57jrTX7ZnpsS-5

6. Song

https://youtu.be/qeHcf_EtZ6A?si=YzSizqebhoZpFRac

Paula’s prayer meeting oct 11 2023

 https://youtu.be/NvqSsO2-vTA?si=NdeGWq_hFC2CNXRT

The Heavens are Telling of the Glory of God  

Colossians 1:16   For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him

John 1:1–3   In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

Revelation 4:11   “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.” 

Hebrews 11:3   By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

Jeremiah 32:17   ‘Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.’

 

Low salt low carb instant pot shepherds pie

 

Shepherd's Pie and Mashed Cauliflower in one Instant Pot?  Yes, Ma'm.  Instant Pot comes with a trivet and this recipe employs its use to the hilt to accomplish the stacking approach.  The shepherd's pie is cooked right in the pot, trivet is positioned above it and the cauliflower is placed in a seven inch container to hold the cauliflower florets.

The recipe and idea of using the stacking method to cook both the pie and cauliflower was adapted from the book The Fresh & Healthy Instant Pot Cookbook by Megan Gilmore. I tweaked the original recipe by using tomato paste, miso paste, nutritional yeast and bay leaves to enhance the depth of flavor of the filling. I also added green peas to the vegetable medley at the end.

Instant Pot Vegan Shepherd's Pie with Mashed Cauliflower

Adapted from the book The Fresh & Healthy Instant Pot Cookbook by Megan Gilmore.

Ingredients

• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 carrots, cut in half inch pieces
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 8 ounces cremini mushrooms, roughly cut
• 1/2 cup lentils
• 1 cup water
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 4 tbsp nutritional yeast
• 1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tsp dry rosemary
• 1 tbsp tamari soy sauce or more to taste
• salt to taste
• black pepper to taste
• 1 head cauliflower cut into small pieces
• 1 tbsp miso paste or more to taste
• 8 ounces frozen green peas

1. Add all the ingredients EXCEPT the cauliflower, miso paste and green peas in the Instant Pot and mix them. 

2. Place the trivet on top of the vegetables and put a seven inch oven safe bowl on top. Place the cauliflower florets and 1/2 cup water in the bowl. 

3.  Securely place the lid and be sure the steam release valve is in the Sealing position.

4  Select Manual/Pressure Cook to cook at high pressure for 5 minutes. 

5. When the cooking cycle is done, allow the pressure to naturally release for 10 minutes.   At the end of ten minutes, move the steam release valve to Venting position to allow the remaing pressure to escape.  

6. When all the pressure is released the floating valve will drop, and you can now open the lid. Using an oven mitt remove the trivet and the bowl out of the pot. 

7,  Remove the bay leaves from the vegetable filling and add the miso paste with stirring and adjust the other seasonings. Add the frozen green peas and stir.  

8. Mash the cauliflower with nondairy milk, salt and pepper in the bowl with a fork or transfer in a blender.

9. Serve the vegetable filling in a large bowl or individual bowls 

topped with mashed cauliflower.

Understanding God’s ways

 1. Meditation 

https://youtu.be/IoblMfQY9i0?si=KH9MXTdhA5zKExxv

2.  Song

https://youtu.be/1zo3fJYtS-o?si=JxxrgCrFqpVvZI6c

3.  Narrative 

THE WAY OF JESUS

Following Jesus’ Way

Sunday, February 19, 2023

Jesus summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them, “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow me. For whoever wishes to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for my sake and that of the gospel will save it.” —Mark 8:34–35 

Richard Rohr shares how Jesus’ message and way is intended to change our lives with its counter-intuitive wisdom and call:   

A blatant contradiction between message and action is holding us back in every part of the world. Christians too often preach a self-absorbed gospel of piety and religiosity, rather than a “lifestyle gospel.” The gospel is so radical that if we truly believed its message, it would call into question all the assumptions we currently hold about the way we live, how we use our time, whom we relate to, how we marry, and how much money we have. Everything we think and do would be called into question and viewed in a new way. [1]  

I believe that we rather totally missed Jesus’ major point when we made a religion out of him instead of realizing he was giving us a message of simple humanity, vulnerability, and nonviolence that was necessary for the reform of all religions—and for the survival of humanity. We need to dedicate our lives to building bridges and paying the price in our bodies for this ministry of reconciliation (Ephesians 2:13–18). The price is that we will always, like all bridges, be walked on from both sides. Reconcilers are normally “crucified,” and the “whole world hates them,” because they are neither on one side nor the other. They build the vulnerable bridge in between, which always looks like an abdication of ground to the supposedly “true believer.”  

Jesus is a person and, at the same time, a process. Jesus is the Son of God, but at the same time he is “the Way.” Jesus is the goal, but he’s also the means, and the means is always the way of the cross.  

For all authentic spiritual teachers, their message is the same as their life; their life is their message. For some reason, we want the “person” of Jesus as our “God totem,” but we really do not want his path and message of “descent” except as a functional theology of atonement: this is what Jesus needed to do to “save us.” We do not want to see the cross as the pattern of life and a path for our own liberation. We prefer heavenly transactions to our own transformation. 

The way of the cross looks like failure. In fact, we could say that Christianity is about how to win by losing, how to let go creatively, how the only real ascent is descent. We need to be more concerned with following Jesus, which he told us to do numerous times, and less with worshipping Jesus—which he never once told us to do. [2] 

References:  

[1] Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Good News According to Luke: Spiritual Reflections (New York: Crossroad, 1997), 47. 

[2] Adapted from Richard Rohr, Simplicity: The Freedom of Letting Go, rev. ed. (New York: Crossroad, 2003), 80−81. 

4.  Prayer 

Almighty God, in you are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Open our eyes that we may see the wonders of your Word; and give us grace that we may clearly understand and freely choose the way of your wisdom; through Christ our Lord. Amen.  

5.  Meditation 

https://youtu.be/m1k8qWA93NA?si=ePlsvPPehazGAgme

6.  Song

https://youtu.be/51Bx1UwLc0U?si=_Cw6MD5yvm2tynCI