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.  

CELTIC MEDITATIONS 1: Morning Opening Prayer

For the next few weeks I am going to concentrate my thoughts each morning on the opening prayer from my Celtic Benedictions Prayer book, written by J Phillip Newell of the Iona community. All italicized, red text is directly from Newell's book.

7.4.15  LISTEN!

Psalm 19:1-4 GNT

How clearly the sky reveals God's glory!
    How plainly it shows what he has done!
2 Each day announces it to the following day;
    each night repeats it to the next.
3 No speech or words are used,
    no sound is heard;
4 yet their message goes out to all the world
    and is heard to the ends of the earth.

SATURDAY MORNING:

In the silence of the early morning

Your Spirit hovers over the brink of the day

And new light pierces the darkness of the night.

In the silence of the morning

Life begins to stir around me

And I listen for the day’s first utterances.

In earth, sea and sky

And in the landscape of my own soul

I listen for utterances of your love, O God.

I listen for utterances of your love.

I was up early this morning and out on my back deck.  As I prayed through Newell’s prayer, I listened to God. God was speaking…..

Look closely.  You'll find the birds, the chimes, the hawk, the sprinklers, the wind
and the leaves, and the insects all within the design.  And our ears
must listen for the utterances of God's love.

I listen for God.

He speaks in the not-so-quiet of the early morning.

The piercing call of the resident hawk circling the sky.

A chorus of birds chirping and chattering.

The rhythm of sprinklers renewing the earth.

The silence of deer grazing in the neighbor yard.

The melodies of various wind-chimes gently filling the air.

The rustle of the lilac branches in the rush of the wind.

The popping of the coffee as it perks inside.

Distant, yet early, roar of mowers already at work, beating the afternoon heat.

The hum of insects, white noise in the background of my ears.

God is gently, quietly calling.

So softly we might not hear.

Let those who have ears to hear, listen!

God is speaking ‘utterances of His love’.

  

7.5.15  The Grace of Seeing

John 1:5
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

SUNDAY MORNING:

I watch this morning for the light that the darkness has not overcome. 

I watch for the fire that was in the beginning and that burns still in the brilliance of the rising sun.

I watch for the glow of life that gleams in the growing earth and glistens in sea and sky.

I watch for your light, O God, in the eyes of every living creature and in the ever-living flame of my own soul.

If the grace of seeing were mine this day I would glimpse you in all that lives.

Grant me the grace of seeing this day.

Grant me the grace of seeing.  (JPN)

          Sunday morning.  I have coffee hour duties today.  I have fellowship duties today.  Luke and the PYGS are leaving for their mission trip right after church.   My mind is not peaceful in the storm of ‘duties’ and I fail to take the time to reflect on this opening prayer.  Yet the grace of seeing is bestowed in that the words call me back to my list of God-Moments.  I haven’t added to it for a couple days and the prayer calls me to stop and SEE glimpses of God in the days past.  That simple reflection has the power to calm the storm.  Katy preached this morning on Jesus Calming the Storm.  She talked of the storms in our lives, the buckets we fill to ‘bail out the boat’ when what we truly need is the faith and trust to simply curl up with Jesus and sleep alongside our Savior.  I absolutely loved the imagery of nestling confidently beside Christ on the bow of the boat.  Let the storms rage.  Perhaps my list is a step toward the bow and a step toward that kind of peace. 

               Hmmm….a spectacular sunset streaking red and orange across the sky BEFORE the glory of fireworks; star bursts of gold and red, silver and green, in the distant night sky; Jupiter and Venus still blazing light in the west; the light of old friends not seen for awhile; the flame of charcoal fire, embers barely lit; the warmth of hugs and hellos; the fireball energy of five little boys and the pride of watching youth grow into maturity as parents; God-light.  God.  Thank you, Lord, for the grace of seeing glimpses of you in all that lives, glimpses of God-light to illuminate my way.  

7.6.15 Bridled by Love, Bridled FOR Love

Psalm 18:1 MSG

I love you God, you make me strong!

MONDAY MORNING: 

For the morning light and its irresistible dawning,

For your untameable utterances of life

in boundless stretches of space and the strength of the waves of the sea

I give you thanks, O God.

Release in me the power of your Spirit that my soul may be free and my spirit strong,

Release in me the freedom of your Spirit that I may be bridled by nothing but love

That I may be bridled only by love. (JPN)

Release in me the power to love.

Wipe clean the chains that limit my action

The bondage of my own accord.

Release in me the power of your Spirit

That love overwhelms all else,

That love becomes my bridle,

That love controls my every thought.

Release and bridle.

Set free, yet restrained.

Opposites at first glance.

Yet one empowers the other. 

Bridled by love frees us to see God in all,

Bridled by love frees us to be God’s heart here

In this place and time. 
It frees us FOR Love. 

7.7.15  AWAKEN MY SENSES

Psalm 34:8  MSG

Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see—
how good God is.
Blessed are you who run to him.

TUESDAY MORNING:

In the beginning, O God,

When the firm earth emerged from the waters of life

You saw that it was good. 

The fertile ground was moist

The seed was strong

And earth’s profusion of color and scent was born.

Awaken my senses this day

To the goodness that still stems from Eden.

Awaken my senses to the goodness that can still spring forth

In me and in all that has life. (JPN)

Awaken in me.  Open my eyes to see!  Open my ears to hear!  Smell!  Touch textures!  Awaken my senses!  God is present.  In the amaryllis that refuses to die, but in the heat of summer pushes long blades of green upward.  Growth springing forth.  God is present – in the daily surge of green that radiates from the cucumber vines, rapidly creeping across the garden plot.  Growth springing forth.  Goodness and life.  We can bemoan the news and the pain and suffering of our world and forget to notice that God is present.  Goodness is present.  May we savor and taste, see and acknowledge our God alive.  Our God weeping with us in the suffering, knowing when we see the blessing and life in each other, the goodness and growth, we will act in his name.  Awaken in me a vision of God-present, awaken in me where I must act in God’s name.  

7.8.15  Dark to Light.
Psalm 143:8 GNT
Remind me each morning of your constant love,
    for I put my trust in you.
My prayers go up to you;
    show me the way I should go.

WEDNESDAY MORNING PRAYER:
With the rising of the sun life rises again within me, O God.
In the dawning of the morning light you lead me from the mists of the night
into the clarity of the day.
In the new light of this day bring me a clearer knowing
of the mystery that first bore me from the dark
Bring me to a clearer knowing of the love from which all life is born.  (JPN)

Womb. Clouded.  Dark. Night.  
Unknowing.  Uncertain.
Birth.  Emergence.  Misty light. Mother's love. 
Rebirth in Christ.   Brighter light. 
Clarity of purpose; Dawning understanding.
Savior's love. God's love. 
Death.  Pure light.  Blazing light.
Perfect understanding; unending trust.
Eternal love.
Dark to light; light to love.
Love to all life. 
Bring me to a clearer knowing. 



7.9.15 Satisfy, Fill
Psalm 107:9 GNT
He satisfies those who are thirsty
    and fills the hungry with good things.

THURSDAY MORNING:
As the light of dawn awakens earth's creatures
and stirs into song the birds of the morning
so may I be brought to life this day. 
Rising to see the light
to hear the wind
to smell the fragrance of what grows from the ground
to taste its fruit and touch its textures
So may my inner senses be awakened to you
so may my senses be awakened to you, O God.  (JPN)

          I am called this morning to ponder verse 9 from Psalm 107, rather than a phrase from Newell's Thursday morning opening prayer.  "He satisfies the thirsty....he fills the hungry."  My mind wanders to physical hunger and thirst versus spiritual hunger.  While God does provide abundantly for our physical needs, we don't always share that abundance in equal measure.  There are those in our world with knots of hunger twisting their bellies, with parched lips and withered skin in the grip of drought.  Yet God fills them with a spiritual food that lessens the pain and thirst.  We who live in the land of abundance are never REALLY hungry or thirsty, yet our spiritual deprivations are great because of that abundance.  May God fill us with the spiritual food that calls us to share more freely, to answer the cry for help, and view our world's resources as God's blessing for ALL.  May ALL 'taste the fruit and touch its textures' and be satisfied and full.  

7.10.15 WONDROUSLY MADE
Psalm 139:13-14 VOICE
For You shaped me, inside and out.
    You knitted me together in my mother’s womb long before I took my first breath.
14 I will offer You my grateful heart, for I am Your unique creation, filled with wonder and awe.
    You have approached even the smallest details with excellence;
    Your works are wonderful;
I carry this knowledge deep within my soul.

FRIDAY MORNING:
In the morning light, O God, 
may I glimpse again your image deep within me
the threads of eternal glory
woven into the fabric of every man and woman.
Again may I catch sight of the mystery of the human soul 
fashioned in your likeness
deeper than knowing, more enduring than time. 
And in glimpsing these threads of light 
amidst the weakness and distortions of my life
let me be recalled to the strength and beauty deep in my soul. 
Let me be recalled 
to the strength and beauty of your image in every living soul. (JPN)

          Made in the image of God.  Wonderfully and intricately created. Fashioned in the likeness of God.   Wow.  What words!  When we have self-doubt, all we have to do is read these lines and be uplifted.  God is our creator and God doesn't make junk!  We have God within us, yet we often cover up the wonderful being we are with the clothing of denial, rejection, pride, or conceit.  May we peel back the layers of self and allow the God deep within to emerge.  May we constantly seek to view others beneath their costume and see the God hiding within them.  
          I am off this morning to work a shift for Crossroads at the photobooth for the motorcycle rally.  Nearly 4000 motorcycles are expected to arrive in Baker City this weekend.  It is easy to carry a pre-conceived notion of 'bikers' with their leather garb, tattoos, and chains.  May I look today beneath to the image of God in each face, the threads of God 'strength and beauty' deep within each person.