Looking for God?

We need to find God, and he cannot be found in noise and restlessness. God is the friend of silence. See how nature--trees, flowers, grass--grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence. We need silence to be able to touch souls.

-Mother Teresa

Love self & others

When Jesus asserted that we should love our neighbors as ourselves, he was expressing once again the profound theological truth that our love for ourselves and for others is intimately connected in the intricate ecology of life.

We cannot wisely love others until we know how to love ourselves — and do it! In the dynamic and interdependent fabric of life, our wholeness and well-being and the wholeness and well-being of others are indivisible. Indeed, we cannot achieve our vocation in life apart from one another.

Holy Adventure by Bruce GF. Epperly

When We Walk our Talk

When we see you sharing your hope
with the poor, the immigrant, the stranger;
when we watch you build a ramp
for those in wheelchairs;
when we experience your willingness
to help us in spite of our stubbornness;
when we hear your call to love
over our yearnings to hate:
we know what holiness looks like,
God of Creation.

When you refuse to speak harshly
to those who judge you;
when you wipe away the tears
of those who would hurt you;
when you choose to respond nonviolently
to those who would crucify you:
we know what peace looks like,
Light of the World.

When we hear you whisper
of fair play and justice;
when you fill our hands with grace
to be shared with others;
when you build our lives
on the foundation of Christ's peace and love:
we know what power looks like,
Spirit alive in us.

AMEN

-Thom Shuman

www.lectionaryliturgies.blogspot.com

LOVING ONE ANOTHER

O God:

Enlarge my heart, that it may be big enough

to receive the greatness of your love.

Stretch my heart, that it may take into it all those

who, with me, around the world, believe in Jesus Christ.

Stretch it, that it may take into it all those who do not know him, but

who are my responsibility because I know him.

And stretch it, that it may take in all those

who are not lovely in my eyes, and whose hands I do not want to touch;

through Jesus Christ, my Savior. Amen.

February Thoughts

O God of all times and places, of all peoples and nations,
though our lives are filled with moments of misery,
days of despair,
periods of pain,
times of trial,
years of yearning,
we pray for your comfort and strength on each day of life’s journey
as we walk in the light of your enduring grace.

- Jerry Oakland
The Upper Room Worshipbook, 2006