Returning to love

 

1.  PRAYER

A Prayer for Resting in God's Love

God of Goodness, I come into your presence so aware of my human frailty and yet overwhelmed by your love for me. 
I thank you that there is no human experience that I might walk through where your love cannot reach me. 
If I climb the highest mountain you are there and yet if I find myself in the darkest valley of my life, you are there. 
Teach me today to love you more. 
Help me to rest in that love that asks nothing more than the simple trusting heart of a child.

- Author Unknown2  

2.  MEDITATION

https://youtu.be/-9KLB2HI9BI?si=AUpITIP8tgMtIp-d

3. Song

https://youtu.be/Als5Paml-AM?si=oX0_Ow8TDMU93xgf

4.  NARRATIVE

Returning to Love

Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Returning to Love
Tuesday, December 30, 2014

T. S. Eliot writes, “We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time” (Little Gidding, Part V, “Four Quartets”). We return where we began, to the eternal embrace of Divine Love. We were formed by original blessing, but we’ve heard so often the story of “original sin” that we have to be reminded of our beginnings in beauty and union.

Rob Bell shared at CAC’s CONSPIRE event this year how the Christian Creation narrative is uniquely hopeful. The creation poem in Genesis 1 is a “confrontive story,” portraying something radically different than the common creation stories of its time; rather than “violence and destruction,” the Genesis mythos shows “overflowing joy and creativity.” Knowing we began as an expression of God’s desire for relationship allows us to trust that life is headed somewhere good, into new forms of Love making itself known, oneing all things in a whole and expanding universe. As one Pauline translation puts it “The whole of creation is standing on tip toe to see the full revelation of the children of God” (Romans 8:19).

The story ends where it begins: in life and now even in “life more abundantly” (John 10:10). This Life came from “nowhere” (creatio ex nihilo) and now has my name upon it. From death—the small dyings to the False Self and our eventual physical death—comes resurrection into our True Self, who we have been all along but have simply forgotten. As you look back on a year almost ended and forward to a year about to begin, recall the ways in which God has been inviting you to return, again and again, to Love, which is the same as returning to God.

5.  MEDITATION

https://youtu.be/mFGW0EYnRYg?si=UdmS_8HInknnBJ5T

6.  SHARING

https://youtu.be/8QF9hM1MQwc?si=t0ML3ZhveZ9EHlak

7.  PRAYER AND INTENTIONS

Your Love

Bless us with Love, O Merciful God; 
That we may Love as you Love!
That we may show patience, tolerance,
Kindness, caring and love to all!
Give me knowledge; O giver of Knowledge,
That I may be one with my Universe and Mother Earth!
O Compassionate One, grant compassion unto us;
That we may help all fellow souls in need!
Bless us with your Love O God.
Bless us with your Love.

- Author Unknown

8.  SONG

https://youtu.be/mUE1MB5iWOQ?si=R7g3XCKlSgzbJkuC

Trust

 1.  PRAYER

Dear Heavenly Father,
As I rise from my sleep and step into this new day, I am reminded of the wisdom You have shared with us in Proverbs 3:5–6:
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.”
Lord, today I place my trust in You with all my heart. I acknowledge that my understanding is limited, and I lean on You for guidance and wisdom in all I do.
Help me to rely not on my own understanding but on Your infinite knowledge and love.
As I prepare to face the challenges and blessings of this day, I submit myself to Your will.
I surrender my plans, desires, and ambitions to You, knowing that Your ways are higher and wiser than mine.
I ask for the humility and strength to align my actions and decisions with Your divine purpose.
Lord, please make my paths straight. Remove any obstacles that may lead me astray from Your righteous and loving path.
Grant me the clarity to discern Your will and the courage to follow it, even when it may seem unclear or difficult.
In every moment of this day, I seek Your guidance and presence. Whether in times of joy or trial, help me to remember Proverbs 3:5–6, and may these verses be a constant reminder of Your steadfast love and faithfulness.
Thank You, Heavenly Father, for the assurance that as I trust in You, submit to Your ways, and seek Your guidance, You will lead me on a straight and purposeful path.
With gratitude and love, I commit this day to You, trusting that You are always by my side.
In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen.

Originally published at http://4foldlove.wordpress.com on October 3, 2023.

2.  MEDITATION 

https://youtu.be/y8KSid0WFwY?si=geQYL9VoN9uWywjY

3.  SONG

https://youtu.be/ZiEqKpN90W4?si=d9ojVgSZtTZmRArU

4.  NARRATIVE

notes on trust by AI. 

TAGS : MORNING WORSHIPRELIGION

Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, is a Franciscan friar and author who often speaks on theological and spiritual trust, particularly in the context of a "God-soaked future" and the foundational nature of trust in reality

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Here are the key aspects of Rohr’s teaching on trust:

• Trust in a "God-Soaked Future": Rohr emphasizes trusting in a future that is already "chosen from the beginning". He suggests that the "problem was solved at the beginning," implying that Christmas (the incarnation) was already Easter (the resurrection), which allows for a foundational, radical trust in God.
• Trust as a Foundation: He presents trust as a "rock" upon which life can be built, likening it to a decision to live without the need for absolute certainty.
• Trust in Reality: For Rohr, trust in God is synonymous with trusting in reality.
• A "Subject-to-Subject" View: He encourages moving away from viewing the world as "object" and towards seeing it as "subject" (sacrality), which allows one to recognize the divine within all things, fostering a deeper, relational trust.
• Connection to Surrender: True trust is portrayed as a quiet, confident, and surrendered state, contrasting it with a reliance on personal, often anxious, control. 

Rohr’s perspectives on trust are deeply intertwined with his teachings on the "Universal Christ" and a Franciscan, creation-centered spirituality.  

Fr. Richard Rohr: Trust in a ‘God-soaked future, chosen from the beginning’

by MARY LEE TALBOT on JULY 18, 2019  4.29K VIEWS

Father Richard Rohr Begins The Sermon With A Question “Did You Know That Christ Is Not Jesus’s Last Name?” At The 10:45 A.m. Morning Worship On Sunday, July 14, 2019 In The Amphitheater. Rohr Will Be The Interfaith Lecturer For Week
MHARI SHAW/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

“It took about eight centuries to give theological heft to what Father Francis intuited,” said Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, at the 9:15 a.m. Thursday Ecumenical Service. “He gave subjectivity, ‘sacrality’ if you will, to everything.”

His sermon title was “Resolved from the Beginning,” and the Scripture reading was Ephesians 1:3-14. 

“Francis gave everything voice,” Rohr said. “We are not talking subject to object, but subject to subject. You can’t discover the soul in something else until you recognize your own.”

For Franciscans, the first Bible was nature, creation. 

“And as I have reminded you every day,” Rohr said, “that has been going on for 13.6 billion years. Meister Eckhart said ‘every creature is a word of God and is a book about God.’ ”

Nothing divine ever dies. 

“Christmas was already Easter; the problem was solved at the beginning,” Rohr said. “Resurrection is the logical conclusion to incarnation. Resurrection was not a one-time anomaly in Jesus. When I get all dressed up on Easter, the songs and responses are less than exciting. If you want to see people who are excited about the resurrection, go to the Orthodox.”

Rohr’s book, The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe, was supposed to be published in November 2018. It was delayed and John Dominic Crossan’s book, Resurrecting Easter: How the West Lost and the East Kept the Original Easter Vision, was published before Rohr’s. Crossan came to the same conclusion about Easter from art, that Rohr came to from theology. 

“There were no paintings of the Resurrection for the first six centuries of the church,” Rohr said. “You can see from the art how the Eastern church kept the original Easter vision while the Western church lost it.”

In the Western church, the paintings show Jesus alone; “touchdown Jesus,” Rohr called him, with his hands in the air saying “Hallelujah.” 

“Humans don’t tend to get excited about things that do not include them,” Rohr said.

Later, the paintings would feature some Easter lilies, “which don’t grow in Palestine,” Rohr said. There would be two stunned guards on one side of the tomb and two angels on the other, and Jesus with a white staff and banner attached.

“There was never a message on the banner,” Rohr said. “It was a giveaway that we didn’t know what the message was.”

Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson Hugs Father Richard Rohr As Chautauquans Greet Their Eachother At The Beginning Of The 10:45 A.m. Morning Worship On Sunday, July 14, 2019 In The Amphitheater. MHARI SHAW/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

In contrast, in the Eastern Orthodox icons of the Resurrection, Jesus is shown rising out of Hades, pulling Adam and Eve with him followed by many other souls. Above is a cloud of witnesses.

“Until people learned to read, they studied these icons intensely because they knew there was meaning in each detail,” Rohr said. “Half the people had halos, showing they had a higher consciousness, and the other half were ordinary folks. That is an image to say ‘Hallelujah’ about.”

Rohr repeated a story from his Sunday sermon. In third grade, Rohr asked his teacher, “Sister, Jesus descended into Hell — why?” The nun replied, “to get Noah and Abraham.”

“That didn’t make sense to me,” he said. “Why were they in Hell? Both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have said that Hell is not a geographic place, but a state of consciousness. We got trapped in a place; we had to prove it was there, then we had to prove people were there, and they were always ‘those other people.’ Hades is simply the place of the dead, more like limbo.”

What happened to Jesus began the final chapter of history, Rohr said. 

“There should be joy, but this generation was raised with Late, Great Planet Earth and ‘Armageddon,’ ” Rohr said. “There is cynicism today because people don’t know the Gospel.”

Quoting from the movie “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” Rohr said, “everything will be alright in the end, and if it is not alright, then it is not the end.”

Rohr said he wanted “(his) lightweight talk to have some heft.” 1 Corinthians 15:12-20 is a discussion of resurrection. Paul wrote that if there was no such thing as resurrection, then Christ was not raised. 

“Resurrection is a universal principle,” Rohr said. “Maybe it is our parenting, but we tend to remember threats better, and verse 14 says that our preaching is useless if Christ was not raised.”

In verse 20, Paul affirms that Christ was raised: “The first fruits of those who have died.”

“Scientists tell us that there are the same amount of atoms now as there were three seconds after the Big Bang,” Rohr said. “Those atoms keep getting rearranged, and resurrection is the facilitator of the change. Trust in a God-soaked future, soaked from the beginning, chosen from the beginning.”

The Rev. J. Paul Womack presided. Alison Marthinsen, part of a six-generation Chautauqua family, a volunteer for the Chautauqua Fund, part of the Chautauqua Choir and a member of the board of Smith Memorial Library, read the Scriptures. Barbara Hois, flute, George Wolfe, saxophone and Joseph Musser, piano, played “Two Romances and a Waltz” by Théodore Dubois and Charles Koechlin as the prelude. The Motet Choir sang “Steal Away,” arranged by Howard Helvey, as the anthem. George Wolfe served as saxophone soloist. Jared Jacobsen, organist and coordinator of worship and sacred music, directed the choir. The Alison and Craig Marthinsen Endowment for the Department of Religion provides support for this week’s services.

5.  MEDITATION 

https://youtu.be/Tkn3YVh4wu8?si=DPFqSZggd72-PWM0

6.  SHARING 

7.  INTENTIONS AND PRAYER 

Author: St. Padre Pio

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O Lord, we ask for a boundless confidence and trust in Your divine mercy, and the courage to accept the crosses and sufferings which bring immense goodness to our souls and that of Your Church.

Help us to love You with a pure and contrite heart, and to humble ourselves beneath Your cross, as we climb the mountain of holiness, carrying our cross that leads to heavenly glory.

May we receive You with great faith and love in Holy Communion, and allow You to act in us, as You desire, for Your greater glory.

O Jesus, most adorable heart and eternal fountain of Divine Love, may our prayer find favor before the Divine Majesty of Your Heavenly Father. Amen.

8.  SONG

https://youtu.be/H94Gkz2YCgI?si=0wjYzh-lSKjNiI_9

Peace amongst chaos

 

1.  PRAYER: 

Dear Lord, I pray that Your peace will come upon me. I repent for the times when I have looked to different things in this world to find peace. You are the Prince of Peace. You are aware of all my stressful situations and how I have been desperately looking for peace. Even now, I come to You, believing that You are able to fill me with Your perfect peace that is secure and permanent. Let Your presence surround me, and let Your peace that passes all understanding engulf my heart. Make me lie down in still waters and let me be at peace in all situations. Thank You, Lord, for Your caring and protecting presence. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.

2. MEDITATION

https://youtu.be/-9KLB2HI9BI?si=w26QPGGuqNK7TNh3

3.  SONG

https://youtu.be/ySPQcp5hIqM

4.   NARRATIVE

Good morning! I wanted to forward this to all of you because I think it’s timely and very helpful. This is a daily devotion I get from Richard Rohr’s Center for Action and Contemplation. I pray this blesses you!

•Praying in Crisis•

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Brian McLaren is an author and contemplative activist. He spent over twenty years as the pastor of a church where he lived, worked, and prayed with people in good times and bad. Responding to crises is not theoretical for him, but a deeply felt and lived experience which comes through so clearly in these words. I hope you will feel encouraged to take this practice to your own time of prayer in the days, weeks, and months ahead.

When we call out for help, we are bound more powerfully to God through our needs and weakness, our unfulfilled hopes and dreams, and our anxieties and problems than we ever could have been through our joys, successes, and strengths alone. . . . [1]

Anxieties can gray the whole sky like cloud cover or descend on our whole horizon like fog. When we rename our anxieties, in a sense we distill them into requests. What covered the whole sky can now be contained in a couple of buckets. So when we’re suffering from anxiety, we can begin by simply holding the word help before God, letting that one word bring focus to the chaos of our racing thoughts. Once we feel that our mind has dropped out of the frantic zone and into a spirit of connection with God, we can let the general word help go and in its place hold more specific words that name what we need, thereby condensing the cloud of vague anxiety into a bucket of substantial request. So we might hold the word guidance before God. Or patience. Or courage. Or resilience. Or boundaries, mercy, compassion, determination, healing, calm, freedom, wisdom, or peace. . . . [2]

Along with our anxieties and hurts, we also bring our disappointments to God. If anxieties focus on what might happen, and hurts focus on what has happened, disappointments focus on what has not happened. Again, as the saying goes, revealing your feeling is the beginning of healing, so simply acknowledging or naming our disappointment to God is an important move. This is especially important because many of us, if we don’t bring our disappointment to God, will blame our disappointment on God, thus alienating ourselves from our best hope of comfort and strength. . . .

Whether we’re dealing with anxieties, wounds, disappointments, or other needs or struggles, there is enormous power in simple, strong words—the words by which we name our pain and then translate it into a request to God. Help is the door into this vital practice of petition, through which we expand beyond our own capacities and resources to God’s. . . .

Through this practice of expansion and petition, we discover something priceless: the sacred connection can grow stronger through, not in spite of, our anxieties, wounds, disappointments, struggles, and needs. The Compassionate One is our gracious friend, and we don’t have to earn anything, deserve anything, achieve anything, or merit anything to bring our needs to God. We can just come as we are. [3]

If you found this effective for you in your life during this time I highly recommend you subscribe to it. Click the link below to receive daily meditations like this one.

Ai

Richard Rohr suggests finding peace amidst chaos through 

"deep time" contemplation, recognizing God's presence in the world, letting go of perfectionism, and creating inner sanctuary by embracing stillness, presence, and acceptance rather than escaping or fighting external chaos. True peace isn't the absence of trouble but finding spiritual grounding within challenging circumstances, often by shifting from frantic clock-watching to deeper, divine awareness and inner calm, creating a resilient space for the soul. 

Key Rohr Concepts for Inner Peace:

• Deep Time: Instead of being ruled by the ticking clock and constant demands, live in "deep time," listening for God's presence in the "now," recognizing the inherent sacredness in everyday moments.
• Contemplation: View the physical world as both a hiding place and a revelation of God, allowing for a calm, deep seeing that makes the world feel like home, even with its chaos.
• Inner Sanctuary: Create an internal space of calm, like a hedgehog curling up, through practices like deep breathing, quiet rituals, and nature walks, establishing self-preservation.
• Acceptance, Not Escape: Peace isn't found by escaping chaos but by accepting its presence and finding stillness within it, acknowledging that external factors are fleeting, notes this Facebook post.
• Love & Kindness: Cultivate love and kindness within your own "bubble," spreading it outwards as a ripple effect, creating the world you wish to see, as suggested in this Facebook post. 

Practical Applications:

• Pause & Breathe: Make space for stillness and deep breathing to reset your nervous system.
• Shift Perspective: See your challenging situation as a place where God meets you, not as something to be fixed before peace can begin, says this YouTube video.
• ** Embrace Imperfection:** Let go of the need for perfect circumstances or people, as this is the real obstacle to peace, according to this YouTube video.
• Find the Divine in the Mundane: Look for moments of grace and beauty even amidst difficulty, transforming the ordinary into something sacred, suggests this Facebook post. 
• 5.  MEDITATION

https://youtu.be/mFGW0EYnRYg?si=evGLWCRJuh0Lx8yL

6.   SHARING 

7.  INTENTIONS AND PRAYER

Prayer for times of fear:

Lord Jesus, You see the storm all around me. You know the anxiety I am feeling as I journey through these difficult circumstances. I ask You to calm the pain in my body, soul, and spirit as I cling to You. When I feel discouraged, bring me small bits of encouragement. I praise You that although I feel like I’m drowning, You are with me. Your rod and staff comfort me in this valley of darkness. Thank You that no matter how chaotic things get, You will not let go of me. Your right arm holds me up and I cling to You. I praise You that You are more powerful than the storm I am facing (Psalm 23:4, Psalm 139:7, Psalm 63:8).

8. SONG

https://youtu.be/W4Dcg1LVldQ