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April 15th, 2023

4/15/2023

If you are not ready to change, don’t seek out God.
Richard Rohr

If you don't receive Richard Rohr's daily emails <meditations@cac.org>, I recommend that you sign up. This 'message' came imbedded in his one of his recent offerings. At the time, I felt it was worth noting, so I copied it on my list of quotes to share on this blog in the future. And here it is, today on  'Daily Quotes.'
      I resonate with every quote I offer; some I ponder more than others. But this one…. has stabbed me. Well, that's the phrase that just rolled off my fingers. I love seeking God, but am I ready to change as Richard Rohr suggests. No! After all, I live an upright 'socially acceptable life. And yet, it is the little things that I need to change. I won't tell you what they are; I know, and God knows.
       And, I trust that you know yours. So, if you are ready to change, I suggest that you write this on an index card and put it where you can see it;  pray on it and see where God leads you.

Sitting and knitting with God

2/24/2018

     Here is a recent question posed on the Society of St. John the Evangelist (www.ssje.org) Lenten series entitled Meeting Jesus in the Gospel of John.
What in my life needs help? Where can I not go it alone? Where do I need God’s help and love and provision in order to take the next step?”
     My response: “I know some of the areas in my life where I need God's love and help because they are the ones I don't want to admit to anyone. But when I take the time with God, I seem to be able to disclose them to Him. Evening is a good time for me to talk with God and ask for God’s help. I sit and knit and we chat.”
    I want to go emphasize the comfort I feel during this sitting and knitting time, usually, but not always, at the end of the day before I go to bed. I think of it as my version of the Ignatian Examen, confession, or therapy. I go through the day, the good, bad and indifferent, starting with gratitudes. I discuss problems, pending decisions and sometimes just tell my story. The listeners are God, Jesus, or the Holy Spirit, whoever seems to appear.

"Wow, that's a lot, God."

12/14/2016

My last two days here! What does God want me to do with them? How does God want me to be? This is what I heard as I walked around the city this morning. and as I sit here relishing my second cappucchino of the day. 1) Keep noticing things for which to be grateful. 2) Stay in the present. 3) Pray one last time in your favorite churches. 4) Pray for you enemies. 5) Immediately release all judgments. 6) See Christ in everyone you pass on the street. 7) Enjoy creation. 8) Be grateful.
“Wow, that’s a lot, God.”

Be a beacon of hope~

11/9/2016

This morning in prayer this scripture from the Gospel of Luke appeared.
The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.
Luke 6:45
I posted the following on my www.cottagebythesea.net blog but I want tell you what God spoke to me before I even got out of bed. 1. Do not place your energy in the details of the election or in any postmortem about it. 2. Pray, pray for everyone; that is your call. 3. Be a beacon of hope.

     "How do we carry on today, this day after Election Day? Not just carry on, but move on in a positive way. Approximately half the country is happy with the results; the other half unhappy, and many of those are scared; scared for the LGBTQ community, for reproductive choice, for Muslims, for the environment, for immigrants, for peace.
     "Like the psalmist we can lament; and then, like the psalmist, we can raise our thoughts beyond ourselves, and grab onto hope in something pastthe human response. If we don’t do this, we will remain wallowing in the vitriolic hatred that was the signature of the campaign that just ended.
     "There is much we can do to work for peace and justice in our country and in the world. It starts with who we are, with our hearts open to unconditional love, which is where the hard work is. As I go out today, my challenge is to express positive energy and maintain hope. In the end, love wins."

God is waiting to be found~

11/24/2014

Forgive me. I try to post every other day, but that commitment slipped away this past week. We visited friends, our granddaughter came to visit, and voila, the week had passed. Today I finally got back to what I consider a normal schedule, which to a large extent means that I have the morning for prayer and spiritual reading. I miss it when I’m away or am busy, but I am also very grateful for these non-routine times in my life.
If things had gone as planned, if the owner hadn’t gotten sick, I’d be at the cottage now. But life happens and we adjust, or to use a friend’s term, we ‘re-arrange’. The good news is that the owner is better. However, I doubt that I’ll get up there until after the New Year. That’s okay with me. God follows me around wherever I go. When I’m busy, God seems to hang out toward the back or to the side. God is easier to find when I’m settled in at home, which includes my cottage home. The truth is that all I need to do is remember God and there God is. That’s how I find God. God is waiting to be found.

Begin with gratitude~

9/1/2014

Frequently I write about gratitude, about giving thanks not just for the big things, but for the little ones. I grew up with the idea of gratitude. It formed the basis of my mother faith, which makes it no surprise that the memoir I’m completing about her is entitled ‘Very Grateful.’ So this morning, I was feeling pretty smug that I had this gratitude piece down pat. That is, until I read this from The Rule of St. Benedict.

     “First of all, every time you begin a good work, you must pray to God most earnestly to bring it to perfection.”

     It’s one thing to remember to thank God after something that has happened, especially when things have gone well. Well, according to my judgment, according to how I want my life to be! On the other hand, it is much harder to remember to pray before I start doing anything, be it a ‘good work’ or just one of life’s usual routines. I usually plunge right in, and maybe, maybe just once in a while, do I open up a tiny space to pray before I begin, to ask God to start out with me and to come along throughout the task, throughout the day. It’s going to take some practice and prayer on my part, but I’m going to give it a try. Scratch that word ‘try’, which allows a way out. I’m committed to keep remembering and when I forget, I’ll remember again.

       I’ve just started a new chapter in my gratitude book: “Prayers Before I Start.” The first entry includes four times today when I want to ask God to come along: writing this blog, fine tuning the introduction and epilogue to ‘Very Grateful’, going to the grocery store, and cooking supper.

    As I finish up this post, I realize that it took me until this moment to ask God to help me with this very message. I have a long way to God, but God hasn’t given up on me. God is still speaking. Right now I feel a palpable difference in what my life is about. A question just popped up: If I don’t want to put a task on the list, is it worth doing?

God's grace~

8/9/2014

Photo by Rosie Perera

Sometimes, like right now, I sit down without a clue as to what I’m going to write about. God, my faith, prayer are always on my mind and in my heart so I trust that something will appear on the screen as I tap away. Ah, and there it is, that very idea that my life has become more and more surrounded, led, and challenged by God thoughts. Well, let’s delete the word thoughts and just leave it at God. It is God who challenges, not my thoughts.

This isn’t to say that I don’t think un-godlike thoughts or don’t act in surly ways, but more and more quickly God calls out to me and pulls me back to deal with it all. Try as I might, I can’t get away from God very easily or for very long. It's grace.

Thomas Merton embraces gratitude

2/28/2014

In spit of various internet difficulties, I’ve been staying very grateful, and for that I am also very grateful. Think about it! If I’m mad at God about technology, like God cares or is even remotely responsible, what do I say when human difficulties come along? Difficulties such as cancer, alcoholism, gun violence, poverty?

     Whatever the circumstance, Thomas Merton embraces gratitude.

My Lord God,

            I have no idea where I am going.
            I do not see the road ahead of me
            Nor do I really know myself,
            And the fact that I think I am following your will
            Does not mean that I am actually doing so.

            But I believe the desire to please you
            Does in fact please you.
            And I hope I never do anything apart from that desire.
            And I know that if I do this,
            You will lead me to the right road
            Though I may know nothing about it.

            Therefore I will trust you always though
            I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.
            I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
            And you will never leave me to face my struggles alone. Amen

Forgiveness again~

12/22/2013

Here is what I experienced about forgiveness the other day. I had made a negative/judgmental comment about someone. Not really bad but let me just say that it didn’t make it through ‘the three sieves’—Is it kind? Is it true? Is it necessary?. Oh, it may have been true and it really wasn’t unkind, but it definitely wasn’t necessary. So what’s the big deal? I asked myself. Well, the big deal was that it didn’t sit right with me; I kept thinking about it; I couldn’t let it go.
As you know, I’m always trying to relieve the burdens and guilt that pop up in my life, and I’m always willing to try a new approach. So I decided to talk it through with God.. First I told the truth about it to myself. Then I confessed it all to God, and asked God’s forgiveness. Voila, the big deal lifted. It didn’t go away. I still think about it, not as guilt, but as a lesson learned.
Maybe I’m beginning to discern what “O Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world” might mean, at least on a personal level.

Gratitude journal~

5/13/2013

In 2006 my daughter and grandchildren gave me a ‘journal for your gratitudes’. My daily three-line entries go something like this: first, I write a one-line prayer addressing one of my reoccurring life themes—open my heart, keep me from judging, lead me to pray without ceasing, keep me conscious of Your presence; next, a line of gratitudes—for the sunrise, morning coffee, good health of friends and family, positive world news; finally, an affirmation or truth for me— good begets good, it is hard for me to pray in the evening.

Yesterday, in the place of gratitudes, I began recording what I hear God calling me to do, which, no surprise, is turning out to be more of a challenge than writing what I’m grateful for.* But I figure that if I pray for God’s guidance, I’d better listen to it, and respond. In the short span of two mornings, I’ve heard that I should visit someone for whom I never seem to have time, that I am, once again, being distracted by too much local sports on TV, and that I need to stop complaining that I have to wash the kitchen floor. On it goes, and truthfully I must confess that I don’t always want to hear what God has to say to me. I want the final word. But that’s not what gratitude is all about.

* A year ago, at the back of the journal I started keeping a list of gratitudes; am now up to 1085.