Happy Living!

I am that living and fiery essence
Of the divine substance
That glows in the beauty of the fields.
I shine in the water, I burn in the sun
And the moon and the stars.
I sustain the breath of all living.
I am life.

- - - Hildegard of Bingen

Summer God, you dance in on golden sunbeams.
Like soil that must be plowed or turned over,
so I must prepare to receive your warmth and
the planting of your message in my heart.
Open me to receiving the seed of hope
and the promise of growth.
Plant your Spirit deep within me
and make my life fruitful and bountiful. Amen.

- Larry James Peacock
Openings: A Daybook of Saints, Psalms, and Prayer

At the beginning,
God of Imagination,
you finger-painted
sunrises and sunsets
on the blank canvas of chaos.
You sang creation's cantata,
while suns, moons, and stars
kept watch over your delights.
You laughed, while
lions, tigers, and bears
danced joyfully in the meadows,
and everything that
wiggles, creeps, crawls
clapped their hands in time.

-Thom Schuman

www.lectionaryliturgies.blogspot.com

Pentecost

Pentecost - The birthday of the church - The coming of the Holy Spirit Made of common earth, fashioned of ordinary matter, we are called to a humus-born humility that cautions us against acting like we have all the answers and know all of God’s designs for creation. Yet the story of Pentecost bids us to remember what the Spirit can do with dust. Pentecost reminds us that the Spirit draws us together and gives us to one another so that we may hear and see and know with greater clarity. This day challenges us to open ourselves beyond the limits of our individual lives to the Spirit who sets us ablaze for the healing of the world. In this Pentecost week, are you seeking the presence of others who will deepen your understanding? Where do you go to hear and see what you cannot hear and see on your own?... Where are you turning your ears, your eyes, your heart, your mind to perceive the presence of the Spirit and the path to which it is drawing you? -Jan Richardson, www.thepaintedprayerbook.com

Where Are You?

Why do we continue to hold on to the notion that life--or our spiritual growth, or spiritual healing, or spiritual inspiration--begins someplace other than where we are right now? Why is it so easy to begin the sentences in our mind with "if only..." or "when..."? I invite you instead to give yourself the permission to. . . Regain the foolishness of wonder Embrace the sacred in the daily Celebrate gooseflesh Radiate compassion Find God in the ordinary Live playfully Spill laughter Invite serendipity Allow Spiritual Renewal to be a journey Savor the moment Delight in life, knee-deep in the sights, smells, sounds and textures of the day And remember that Grace is a gift given to all. Without exception. Period. -Terry Hershey www.terryhershey.com

On a summer morning I sat down on a hillside to think about God a worthy pastime. Near me, I saw a single cricket; it was moving the grains of the hillside this way and that way. How great was its energy, how humble its effort. Let us hope it will always be like this, each of us going on in our inexplicable ways building the universe. -Mary Oliver "Song of the Builder"