CELTIC MEDITATIONS 3: Closing Morning Prayer

This week's meditations are based on the Closing Prayer from each morning of J Phillip Newell's book, CELTIC BENEDICTION Morning and Night Prayer.  All red, italicized print is a direct quote from the book.  

7.18.15  Be Still

Psalm 46:10

Be still and know that I am God.

SATURDAY MORNING CLOSING PRAYER

In the busyness of this day

Grant me a stillness of seeing, O God.

In the conflicting voices of my heart

Grant me a calmness of hearing.

Let my seeing and hearing, my words and my actions

Be rooted in a silent certainty of your presence.

Let my passions for life

And the longings for justice that stir within me

Be grounded in the experience of your stillness.

Let my life be rooted in the ground of your peace, O God,

Let me be rooted in the depths of your peace.  (JPN)

               I am off this morning for a two day retreat with a group of Presbyterian women.  We gather at the Ascension Episcopal Camp in Cove, Oregon.  There will be around 30 of us, 6 from our church, including my mother-in-law Doris.  The theme is “Hope is Better Than Chocolate”  and I have to admit the word chocolate is what attracted me to the retreat!  But we shall look at hope, hope amidst darkness, hope in the middle of the light.  It will be a good opportunity to Be still and to be aware of God’s presence, to be rooted in the depths of peace.  I hope to grab a few moments to be by myself for reflection, to take a solitary walk, to find some roots in the busyness of the summer and our comings and goings. Perhaps a few moments of peace. 

7.19.15 Clothed in Light

Psalm 104:2 MSG

God, my God, how great you are!
    beautifully, gloriously robed,
Dressed up in sunshine…

SUNDAY MORNING CLOSING PRAYER

May the light of God

Illumine the heart of my soul.

May the flame of Christ

Kindle me to love,

May the fire of the Spirit

Free me to live

This day, tonight, and forever.  (JPN)

       I have been waiting to use this scripture for another ‘light’ day in the prayerbook!  I loved the idea of God clothed in the light of the sunrise and sunset, the rays of sun streaming down between cracks in the clouds.  But I also love the image of each one of us also garbed in God’s light, allowing that light to radiate from us.  Light, flames, and fire that free us to love. 

7.20.15  Mending Waters

John 7:38 MSG

“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me…” 

MONDAY MORNING CLOSING PRAYER

In the beginning, O God,

Your Spirit swept over the chaotic deep like a wild wind

And Creation was born.

In the turbulence of my own life

And the unsettled waters of the world today

Let there be new birthing of your Spirit. 

In the currents of my own heart

And the upheavals of the world today

Let there be new birthing of your mighty Spirit. JPN

          At the retreat I attended over the weekend, we discussed hope, repair, and how to stitch together the pieces of our life in the face of ‘upheaval’.  Thus when I read this morning’s prayer about turbulence and unsettled waters, my mind instantly went to our conversations.  I can visualize the rebirthings of our hearts as the mending of our Spirits, the ‘wild wind of the Spirit’ the needle that stitches our lives back together.  And through that mending comes the Hope of our faith in our Creator God.  

7.21.15  Abundance

John 10:10 VOICE

 I came to give life with joy and abundance.

TUESDAY MORNING CLOSING PRAYER

I have tasted the fruit of the earth, O God.

I have seen autumn trees hang heavily with heaven’s gifts.

I have known people pregnant with your spirit of generosity.

Let these be guides to me this day….

May I know that deeper than any fallowness in me

Is the seed planted in the womb of my soul.

May I know that greater than any barrenness in the world

Is the harvest to be justly shared. (JPN)

 

Prayers prayed, but not embedded.  This mandala was
created at the retreat as I remember the profusion
of wildflowers during last week's hikes. 

         Abundance.  It is the time of year when wildflowers are in profusion, the vegetable garden is beginning to produce (love those zucchini), the local wheat fields are thick and ripe, fruit trees are becoming heavy with ripe bounty, and abundance seems to be the norm.  Yet abundance can be so localized, so unevenly distributed.  It is said that our world can easily produce enough for all, yet so many go to bed hungry, so many are malnourished.  Greater than any barrenness is ‘the harvest to be justly shared’.  What can I bring to the table of the world this day?  What can I bring to fill my neighbor?  May I be pregnant with generosity. 

7.22.15  HEALING

John 15:12 MSG

This is my command: Love one another the way I loved you. 

WEDNESDAY MORNING CLOSING PRAYER:

O Sun behind all suns

O Soul within all souls

Grant me the grace of the dawn’s glory

Grant me the strength of the sun’s rays

That I maybe well in my own soul

And part of the world’s healing this day.

That I may be well in my own soul

And part of the world’s healing this day. 

          What does it mean to be ‘part of the world’s healing’?  There is so much asunder, so many adrift, so much conflict and destruction.  This was somewhat the theme of our retreat last weekend.  What can we do when things unravel?  We can pick up our needle of hope and begin to take a stitch to mend life.  It may only be a small, tiny stitch in one patch of fabric, but it is a start and it may be OUR part.  We can’t mend everything, but we can be a part of healing in our small corner of the globe. One stitch at a time.  One patch at a time.  

               I am going to take one of my drawings from the retreat and put my prayers into the fabric.  May God’s healing descend upon those who are in need, spiritually, emotionally, physically.  May God reveal to me ways in which I can be a part – perhaps ways beyond my prayers.  

7.23.15  Bread of Life

John 6:35 MSG

Jesus said, ‘I am the bread of life.’

THURSDAY MORNING CLOSING PRAYER

The vitality of God be mine this day

The vitality of the God of life.

The passion of Christ be mine this day

The passion of the Christ of love.

The wakefulness of the Spirit be mine this day

The wakefulness of the Spirit of justice.

The vitality and passion and wakefulness of God be mine

That I may be fully alive this day

The vitality and passion and wakefulness of God

This is my Cinnamon Roll prayers from earlier
in the month.  Too busy baking and visiting
to draw today!

That I might be fully alive. 

          Jesus said, ‘I am the bread of life’.  I went on a baking binge today.  Jed and Luke arrived late last night and I wanted cinnamon rolls for my boys, then I thought, maybe some for Todd and Amy if they help Jed unload.  I had better have a pan for Jed to take to my sister and brother and company.  I needed to make communion bread for Sunday.  I bought three giant zucchini at the Farmer’s Market Wednesday night and needed to process the bounty, plus use up some of the frozen zuke in the freezer.  I baked.  Lots.  It was not an overly warm day, thank God!  Two batches of cin rolls, 3 batches of zuke bread, 2 of zuke chocolate bundt cake, 1 of molasses bread, 1 of zuke-cranberry muffins.   For me to have bread to share is vitality. 

7.24.15 Grace and New Beginnings

John 16:13 MSG

When the Friend comes, the Spirit of the Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is.

FRIDAY MORNING CLOSING PRAYER:

Glory be to you, O God, for the gift of life

Unfolding through those who have gone before me.

Glory be to you, O God,

For your life planted within my soul

And in every soul coming into the world.

Glory be to you, O God,

For the grace of new beginnings

Placed before me in every moment and encounter of life.

Glory, glory, glory

For the grace of new beginnings in every moment of life.

               Jed is embarking on new beginnings.  He left just 30 minutes ago to travel with Luke the last leg of his move back to Oregon from New Mexico.  He spent a day relaxing, visiting, and eating cinnamon rolls – a nice diversion from the past month of tying up loose ends and packing.  He is excited and ready for the glory of grace in new starts.  I pray the wisdom of the Spirit will go with him in his adventure.  I pray he seeks that guidance. 

               My brother is also embarking on new beginnings…of a different nature.  He seeks the glory of grace in forgiveness and the wisdom of the Spirit to guide him in sobriety.  I pray the Spirit will take him by the hand and guide him every moment and every day.  I cherish a God who gives us the grace of forgiveness, in all our weaknesses, and says no moment, no age, is ever too late. 

               New starts, new opportunities, new beginnings – all through the grace and glory of God. 

CELTIC MEDITATIONS 2: Morning Prayer of Intercession & Thanksgiving

This week devotions will be based on the Morning Prayer of Thanksgiving and Intercession from J Phillip Newell's Celtic Benedictions Prayer Book.    All italicized, red text is directly from Newell's book.  

7.11.15  Ebb and Flow

Ecclesiastes 3:2  VOICE

For everything that happens in life – there is a season, a right time for everything under heaven….

SATURDAY MORNING PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING AND INTERCESSION:

For the night followed by the day

For the idle winter ground followed by the energy of spring

For the infolding of the earth followed by burst of unfolding

Thanks be to you, O God.

For rest and wakefulness, stillness and creativity, reflection and action

Thanks be to you.

Let me know in my own soul and body

The rhythms of creativity that you have established.

Let me know in my family and friendships

The disciplines of withdrawal and the call to engagement.

Let me know for my world the cycles of renewal

Given by you for healing and health;

The patterns of the seasons given by you for the birth of new life. (JPN)

Night and day.  Summer and winter.  Sleep and activity.  Meditation and service.  There is an ebb and flow rhythm to our lives that allows time for renewal, a pattern of repetition that echoes again and again through our days.  It allows us to recharge, to be spiritually filled, to reflect and then respond.  A cycle of left and right, giving and getting.  I especially like the line, ‘Let me know in my own soul and body the rhythms of creativity that you have established.’  How well I know how that works.  There are days when ideas just seem to flow forth unstoppable and you can’t seem to put pencil to paper fast enough.  And there are days when perhaps the time is best spent in quiet reading because the pencil simply cannot move and the mind is blank.  Thank you, God, for the ebb and flow, a time for everything….in YOUR time. 

7.12.15  SHOWERS OF LIGHT

Psalm 36:9 MSG

You’re a fountain of cascading light,
    and you open our eyes to light.

SUNDAY MORNING PRAYER:

Blessed are you, O Child of the Dawn,

for your light that dapples through creation

on leaves that shimmer in the morning sun

and in showers of rain that wash the earth. 

Blessed are you 

for the human spirit dappled with eternal light 

in its longings for love and birth

and its pain-filled passions and tears.

Blessed are you, O Christ,

for you awaken me to life. 

Blessed are you 

For you stir me to true desire.  (JPN)

          The past few days we have been drenched with showers.  While those involved with the major motorcycle rally may have seen these as a detraction, the ranchers and farmers in the valley are welcoming the rainfall with open arms.  They will see this rain as a blessing, as showers of heavenly light coming straight from the Creator.  The fields were dry and parched.  They have been renewed, washed, and filled.  

          I love the image of our lives being dappled with God-light, like the leaves reflecting the filtered light of the sun.  We filter God through our everyday life, never realizing that God doesn't dapple our life, but rather God is a floodlight that we seem to keep partially hidden. May we welcome the God-light to shine in our lives, may we reflect that light to others, and may we be drenched in the showery fountain of God's loving glory.  

7.13.15  Wind and Water

Psalm 46:1-3 GNT

God is our shelter and strength,
    always ready to help in times of trouble.
So we will not be afraid, even if the earth is shaken
    and mountains fall into the ocean depths;
even if the seas roar and rage,
    and the hills are shaken by the violence.

MONDAY MORNING PRAYER:

For the might of your wind on the waters

for the swelling of the open seas

and the rushing of crested waves

Thanks be to you, O God. 

For the strength of desire in my body

for the sap of life that flows 

and the yearnings for birth and abundance

Thanks be to you. 

Restore me in the image of your love this day

that the longings of my heart may be true. 

Restore me in the image of your love this day 

that my passions for life may be full.

           The might of the wind.  The swell of the sea. The froth of crested waves.  I sit and write this morning on the front porch of a historical forest service cabin tucked on a hillside between Granite and Olive Lake.  It is forested, calm and quiet.  Not particularly the setting for inspiration of ocean roar or the broad expanse of the sea.  I can’t see the ebb and flow of the waves as I do from my mom’s windows on the coast. But the wind?  That might be another issue.

            Baker County has had some fierce thunderstorms roll through in the past few days.  The skies darken and the wind picks up.  The first day it was from the east; the second the southwest.  Trees flailed their branches, and raindrops appeared far within the boundaries of covered shelter.  The wind has been unpredictable in direction, but mighty in its power. 

            The power of God is predictable.  We know God is able to control the elements and environment.  Yet how and where and when?  We know not.  So we believe.  We trust. We prepare with faith, knowing the might of the Almighty.  And in that knowing, lies the calm.  In that knowing, we find restoration. 

7.14.15 A Profuse Display

Luke 12:27 MSG
Walk into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They don’t fuss with their appearance—but have you ever seen color and design quite like it?

TUESDAY MORNING PRAYER:

The world is alive with your goodness, O God,

It grows green from the ground

And ripens into the roundness of fruit.

Its taste and its touch

Enliven my body and stir my soul.

Generously given, profusely displayed

Your graces of goodness pour forth from the earth.

As I have received so free me to give. 

As I have been granted so may I give.

               While I can’t say that I saw a great deal of edible fruit yesterday on the trail, I did see considerable evidence of God’s goodness in terms of wildflowers.  The varying colors and textures, patterns and designs, ‘profusely displayed’ all ‘enliven and stir my soul’.  God is constantly freely giving us the bounty of this world, freely giving the abundance of his love and grace.  As we receive, we must freely give back – to God and to others. 

7.15.15 Cleansing Colors

Psalm 51:10 VOICE

Create in me a clean heart, O God;
    restore within me a sense of being brand new.

WEDNESDAY MORNING PRAYER:

For the first showings of the morning light and the emerging outline of the day

Thanks be to you, O God.

For earth’s colours drawn forth by the sun

Its brilliance piercing clouds of darkness

And shimmering through leaves and flowing waters

Thanks be to you.

Show to me this day

Amidst life’s dark streaks of wrong and suffering

The light that endures in every person.

Dispel the confusions that cling close to my soul

That I may see with eyes washed by your grace

That I may see myself and all people

With eyes cleansed by the freshness of the new day’s light. (JPN)

               “For earth’s colors drawn forth by the sun” – now there’s a phrase that calls to an artist.  Color!  Drawings!  Light and sunshine!  And then skip to the last lines of the prayer: “That I may see with eyes washed by your grace, …with eyes cleansed by the freshness of the new day’s light.” Cleansing light, colors washing clean, rainbows, baptism, and floods.  Renewal.  Hope.  In the midst of trials and suffering, in the midst of family upheavals and death, in the midst of darkness, light is pouring forth, colors of hope and newness are streaming into our lives.  That should put a smile on one’s face to start the day!  

7.16.15   Hunger & Thirst

Psalm 107:9 VOICE

He has quenched their thirst,
    and He has satisfied their hunger with what is good.

THURSDAY MORNING PRAYER:

That you formed my body in the darkness of the womb

And fashioned every creature from the soil of the earth

Thanks be to you, O God.

That you knitted into my senses

A thirst for water and a hunger for food

And wove into every living being

Desires for life and pleasure in their satisfaction

Thanks be to you.

Let me be alert to the yearnings that you have placed within me

And let me know what will truly satisfy the desires of my heart.

Let me be attentive

To the yearnings that you have planted in every human being

And let me be sure of what will fulfill them.

Let me be guided by your wisdom, O Christ,

Let me be guided by your wisdom. 

Thirst and hunger. 

Alert to the yearnings. 

Be attentive.

Guided by wisdom. 

Strong words – words to heed.

We are creatures of God that must acknowledge the God within.

We cannot ignore the God-hints and God-urges;

The stirrings of God inside

That make us into what God has intended. 

I am headed to the hills today.  Where will I see God?  Where will I release the God within?  Let me be guided by the Spirit’s wisdom.  Amen. 

7.17.15  Wisdom and Truth

John 16:13 MSG

But when the Friend comes, the Spirit of the Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is. 

FRIDAY MORNING PRAYER:

That wisdom was born with me in the womb

Thanks be to you, O God.

That your ways have been written into the human body and soul

There to be read and reverenced

Thanks be to you.

Let me be attentive to the truths of these living texts.

Let me learn of the law etched into the whole of creation

That gave birth to the mystery of life

And feeds and renews it day by day.

Let me discern the law of love in my own heart

And in knowing it, obey it.

Let me be set free by love, O God,

Let me be set free to love. (JPN)

               “Let me learn of the law etched into the whole of creation”….God speak wisdom in every wildflower, every sunrise and sunset, every soaring eagle, and in the whole of our world.  Are we listening?  Are we listening to the Spirit within who echoes that truth, who lives that law of love?  Are we honoring God in our treatment of Creation? 

               My favorite lines from this prayer, however, are the last: “Let me be set free BY love, set free TO love.”  Free from our own egoism and concern, free to consider and care for others, secure in the truth of God that lives within.  

Holding Hands with the Spirit

Wednesday, May 30 
John 16:12-13
"I still have many things to tell you, but you can't handle them now.  But when the Friend comes, the Spirit of the Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you in all the truth there is." (The Message)
     I have often heard the phrase, "God won't give you more than you can handle."  Jesus seems to be telling the disciples the same.  Step by step the Spirit will guide us.  We may never see the Big Picture of God for it is more than we can comprehend!  But piece by piece our part in the overall plan will be revealed.
     Perhaps the question we should ask of ourselves is "Are we ready to receive, ready to hear, ready to act upon, what the Spirit's revelation may mean in our lives?"  That revelation may be confusing or unsettling.  It may be 'out of our comfort zone'!  It may not be what it on 'our agenda'.   But it will never be more than we can handle.  The Holy Spirit will be holding our hand!