Ordaination in the PCUSA a Great Interfaith Celebration

God is in all things.

God calls us across the lifespan through hundreds of thousands of movements and experinces, joys ans struggles, in the places and, most importantly, with the people that mark our lives.

There was a bagpiper and  Buddhists, a  Jesuit, a Moderator and Stated Clerk. Teaching and Ruling Elders from four Presbyteries. If you know me, you wouldn't be surprised.

The Table was set, Jesus invites us --to share bread and wine, to discern the graceful presence of the Risen Lord in times of consolation and desolation ("thank you" Ignatius Loyola), to hear the Spirit's voice in "Scotland the Brave" and in the ancient sacred chants of Sri Lankan Buddhism, nestled in between the notes of a most beautiful rendition of “Precious Lord,” in the faithful prayer of my friend and colleague, a former Mormon Bishop, who every day witnesses for grace and hope in the midst of old outdated structures, and, in the coming together of people of deep and traditional faith with those who seek and doubt and object…. All to celebrate what God has done, is doing and will continue to do among us all. As Ignatius said, “God is in ALL things.” With all thanksgiving and gratitude to God. Amen.

Moving toward Thanksgiving I’m mindful that God is in all things, grateful that all that I have I did nothing to deserve, all of it given that it might lead me closer to knowing and understanding God the Creator and the depth and nuisance of his intimate love for us in Christ Jesus.

After:

St Paul in Romans 8:28 “in all things God works for good;”

Aquinas, “God is in all things by his power, since all things are subject to his power; He is by His presence in all things since all things are bare and open to his eyes; He is in all thins by He essence, because He is present to all as the cause of their being;”

Ignatius, ““God freely created us so that we might know, love, and serve him in this life and be happy with him forever. God's purpose in creating us is to draw forth from us a response of love and service here on earth, so that we may attain our goal of everlasting happiness with him in heaven.

All the things in this world are gifts of God, created for us, to be the means by which we can come to know him better, love him more surely, and serve him more faithfully. As a result, we ought to appreciate and use these gifts of God insofar as they help us toward our goal of loving service and union with God. But insofar as any created things hinder our progress toward our goal, we ought to let them go.”



Pray in Intimacy and Love

Psalm 103:1

Bless the LORD, O my soul,

and all that is within me,

bless his holy name.

“Considering that the blessed life we so long for consists in an intimate and true love of God Our Creator and Lord, which binds and obliges us all to a sincere love.”

Ignatius Loyola

Let us bring our blessed hearts in prayer this week. Let them pray from our deepest longings for their most intimate and truest Love. Let them pray there, then, from the sincerity and obligations which bind them at their Source, in deepest amity, with all other hearts blessed in their longings for the intimacy of their truest Love. Amen.

Reflecting on Surrender

Prayer of Surrender
St. Ignatius

Talk, Lord, and receive
my liberty,
my memory,
my entire will, everything I have and call my own.

You gave me all these gifts,
and to you I return them.
Dispose them entirely to your will.
Give me only your love and grace. That is all I ask.

Amen.

My Prayer:

Take, Lord, and receive:
may every choice I make today bring me closer to you and the love you would have me share,
may every memory I have, of pain and joy, of sorrow and gladness, of suffering and mercy be filled with your grace,
may I turn every thought first to your love and may I use every gift and grace I have received to love you better every day.

There is nothing that I am or nothing that I have, which I have not received from you.
So order my heart and mind and soul to offer them back to you in all that I do, think and pray.
Help to open me to the emptiness of being so that your love and grace are all sufficient for my needs. If you would grant this all else that I ask would be unnecessary.
Amen.

Lord, I know none here comes easy. Pray these in my recalcitrant heart when I am at a loss of my own will to do so. Amen