Indwelling

Psalm 90

1Lord, you have been our dwelling place

in all generations.

2Before the mountains were brought forth,

or ever you had formed the earth and the world,

from everlasting to everlasting you are God.

3You turn us back to dust,

and say, "Turn back, you mortals."

4 For a thousand years in your sight

are like yesterday when it is past,

or like a watch in the night.

…….

12 So teach us to count our days

that we may gain a wise heart.

……..

Come in stillness and in solitude, in these hectic days;

come to the dwelling place of God.

Return your heart of prayer

to its most ancient home.

Seek there the hope of all creation;

the strength of eternity;

and peace which endures.

Know in your heart’s returning home;

safe shelter in the frailty of its truth

held within antiquity’s gentle arms.

Pray there that your heart of prayer becomes,

the dwelling place of the Lord.

Amen.

Seeking the Divine in our Humanity

“Self Portrait,” Leonardo daVinci, c. 1512

A person cannot approach the divine by reaching beyond the human. To become human, is what this individual person, has been created for. Martin Buber, February 8, 1878 – June 13, 1965. Austrian-born Jewish Philosopher.

May we come in prayer this week, reaching for the depths of our humanity as we seek the heart of the divine. In so doing, may we come to know better ourselves at our most human finding within us the heart of the divine; for it is only in so doing that we can reach out to our sisters and brothers who come to us for care with the heart of our common humanity. Amen.

Prayer for Hope, Faith & Love

“Nothing that is worth doing can be achieved in our life time; therefore we must be saved by hope.

“Nothing that is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith.

“Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we must be saved by love.” Reinhold Niebuhr, The Irony of American History

If, in the coming days, we begin to feel that what we are doing makes little difference, may we pray for hope and a heart that is content with the long view; when we have difficulty seeing the truth or beauty or good in our lives, may we pray for theses and for the faith to believe that we are always a part of something Bigger than that which we can see; and may we pray for the reassurance that in all we do we are never alone: may we pray to know that we are loved. Amen

The Ah-h-h-h! of Prayer

joy
“Everybody prays whether [you think] of it as praying or not. The odd silence you fall into when something very beautiful is happening or something very good or very bad. The ah-h-h-h! that sometimes floats up out of you as out of a Fourth of July crowd when the sky-rocket bursts over the water. The stammer of pain at somebody else's pain. The stammer of joy at somebody else's joy. Whatever words or sounds you use for sighing with over your own life. These are all prayers in their way. These are all spoken not just to yourself but to something even more familiar than yourself and even stranger than the world.” The Rev. Frederick Buechner.

May we come this week seeking that which is more familiar than ourselves and more strange than the world. May we come in sighs too deep for words and with hearts filled with joy and pain for the hearts which are held by our own. May we be filled with ah-h-h! and lose our selves in the odd silence. May we pray the daily-ness of our living and the living of the lives we love. Amen.