Australian cartoonist Michael Leunig always inspires me with his profound spiritual insights, prayers and cartoons. I thought that you might appreciate what was in a card I was given this weekend.
As a reminder of the different ways we can look at the world.
Cartoon by Michael Leunig
God help us to change.
To change ourselves and to change our world.
To know the need for it.
To deal with the pain of it.
To feel the joy of it.
To undertake the journey without understanding the destination.
The art of gentle revolution.
Amen.
This week’s collection of prayers on the Light for the Journey Facebook page.
God my heart has heard you say:
Come and talk with me.
And my heart responds: Lord I am coming.
Be my light for the journey,
Lead me along the right path,
Show me your love,
Teach how to live.
(inspired by Psalm 27).
Christine Sine https://godspacelight.com/
Breathe in all that is of God,
Love, joy peace, compassion.
Breathe out all that is not of God,
Fear, anxiety, worry, greed.
Breathe in all that is of God,
Mercy, justice, righteousness,humility,
Breathe out all that is not of God,
Selfishness, injustice, indifference, acquisitiveness.
Sit quietly before your God and breathe in life.
Christine Sine https://godspacelight.com/
May I love what you love O Lord,
And wrap my heart around your purposes.
May I turn my work towards justice,
And practice mercy in all I do.
May I set free those I have bound,
And seek to heal those who are broken.
May my spirit ache with compassion,
And soul desire your righteousness.
May your glory shine through all I am and do,
That others may see and respond to the God who is love.
Christine Sine https://godspacelight.com/
The blesséd in your eyes
are not those who have everything
but those who consider
without you
they have nothing.
Not the rich in earning,
but the rich in spending
who give their lives for you.
Your ordinary saints,
being your hands
and words
in their ordinary lives,
doing extraordinary things
with all that you have given them.
The blesséd in your eyes
are not those who desire honour,
but those who seek to serve.
Thank you for the servants in your kingdom.
I was recently sent this link to the U2 song Where the Streets Have No Name as a contribution to the series . I was powerfully impacted by Bono’s quote, another powerful example of how a sacred space can be created in the most unexpected places, places in which God walks through the room.
“We can be in the middle of the worst gig in our lives, but when we go into that song, everything changes. The audience is on its feet, singing along with every word. It’s like God suddenly walks through the room. It’s the point where craft ends and spirit begins. How else do you explain it?” – Bono, Los Angeles Times 2004
What can I give back to God for the blessings he poured out on me
What can I give back to God for the blessings he poured out on me
I lift high the Cup of Salvation as a toast to our Father
To follow through on a promise I made to you from the heartI want to run, I want to hide
I want to tear down the walls that hold me tonight
I want to reach out and touch the flame
Where the streets have no name
I want to feel sunlight on my face
I see the dust cloud disappear without a trace
I want to dance dance dance in the dirty rain
This video of Where the Streets Have no Name is a wonderful (and evidently illegal) clip of U2 performing on a rooftop.
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Check out the other posts in this series
Creating Sacred Space Do We Really Need Churches
Every Garden Needs A Sacred Space
Reclaiming a Sacred Space – Cheasty Greenspace: A Place of Goodness and Grace by Mary De Jong
Creating a Sacred Space – Stir the Senses
A Garden of Inspiration – A Story of Leo Tolstoy
Symbols and Elements that Weave Together a Sacred Space
Why Being Spiritual may be More Important Than Being Religious by Rob Rynders
Celtic Spirituality – What Is The Attraction?
In the Barren Places: Finding Sacred Space for the First Time – James Rempt
A Tree My Most Sacred Space by Ryan Harrison
Sacred Buildings by Lynne Baab
Sacred Space – Listening to the Trees by Richard Dahlstrom
Sharing a Sacred Space by Daniel Simons
Many of you know that I love breath prayers and I thought you might enjoy this one which I wrote last week
Today’s post is by Kimberlee Conway Ireton, author of The Circle of Seasons: Meeting God in the Church Year. This post is the second of a three-part prayer for our children, adapted from an Orthodox akathist to Mary the Mother of God. If you missed or would like to reread the first four sections of the prayer, you can do so here.
A Prayer for My Children
Prelude 5
May the Morning Star, which is Our Lord Jesus Christ, shine with unfading light in the hearts of my children, that they may cry to God: Alleluia.
Song 5
Having seen my diligent supplication rising like incense to You, do not turn away Your face from my children, even if they turn away from You. Hear the cry of my lips, singing to You:
Raise my children to be poor in spirit, that they may inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.
Raise my children to weep, that they may be comforted.
Raise my children to be meek, that they may inherit the earth.
Raise my children to hunger and thirst after righteousness, that they may be filled.
Raise my children to be merciful, that they may obtain mercy.
Raise my children to be pure in heart, that they may see God.
Raise my children to be peacemakers, that they may be called the children of God.
Raise my children (names), O Christ, to be made worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven and make them heirs of eternal blessings.
Prelude 6
We proclaim that You are the defense of orphans, widows, and mothers, and of all Your children who pray and cry out to You: Alleluia.
Song 6
With rays of grace teach my children. May they be so enlightened by You, O Most High, that they see Your path leading to life eternal and follow it. May they be nourished on their journey beneath Your all-powerful protection, in the shadow of Your wings, where there is unending light. For the sake of this, hear me when I cry to You, O God:
Raise my children to be the light of the world, that their light may shine before others, and that seeing their good deeds, people will glorify their Father in Heaven.
Raise my children to be enlightened by Your Son, that in His light they may see light and direct their steps towards Him.
Raise my children always to turn the eyes of their heart to the Redeemer of all.
Raise my children to be guided to the habitation of the righteous by the Morning Star which is Your Son.
Raise my children to be meek and silent and to tremble before the word of God.
Raise my children to love You, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, not only with their minds but also with their hearts.
Raise my children (names), O Christ, to be made worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven and make them heirs of eternal blessings.
Prelude 7
Desiring for my children eternal salvation, with tears I stand before You, O God, and cry: Alleluia.
Song 7
By the wondrous and incomprehensible action of Your Son, lead my children by Your merciful hand beneath Your gracious protection. I cry to You:
Raise my children to seek first the Kingdom of God and Your righteousness.
Raise my children to walk the narrow way leading to life eternal.
Raise my children to do Your will in every place.
Raise my children to long to inherit the Kingdom of Heaven.
Raise my children to be numbered among Your chosen ones.
Raise my children (names), O Christ, to be made worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven and make them heirs of eternal blessings.
Prelude 8
Where will my children, wandering in the greatly perilous and stormy valley of the world, receive joy and consolation, if not in You, O Lord? Travel with them and teach them the true path, that they may cry to You: Alleluia.
Song 8
You are a merciful Mother to all, O Jesus, and I desire that I may become Your child. I place my children in Your hands and in humility I beg You:
Raise my children to keep vigil and pray that they may not fall into temptation.
Raise my children to be merciful so that their Father in Heaven will be merciful to them.
Raise my children in purity of childhood, for to children belongs the Kingdom of God.
Raise my children to be the least of all, that they may be great before God.
Raise my children to fulfill the Word of God, and to be partakers of the heavenly blessedness for which they came into being.
Raise my children to have good hope in the Kingdom of Heaven.
Raise my children (names), O Christ, to be made worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven and make them heirs of eternal blessings.
I have long been a fan of Walter Brueggemann and Journey to the Common Good has not disappointed me. This book constitutes his Laing Lectures at Regent College from a couple of years ago.
Brueggemann talks about the Exodus story as a journey from a culture of anxiety to a practice of neighbourliness drawing parallels with our own cultures and the challenges we face.
The great crisis among us is the crisis of “the common good,” the sense of community solidarity that binds all in a common destiny – haves and have nots, the rich and the poor. We face a croisis about the common good because there are powerful forces at work among us to resist the common good, to violate community solidarity, and to deny a common destiny. Mature people, at their best, are people who are committed to the common good that reaches beyond private interest, transcends sectarian commitments and offers human solidarity. (p1)
Brueggemann presents a very different view of the Joseph story than the one we usually hold to. He points out that Joseph solidified Pharaoh’s power and enslaved the people, manipulating the economy to concentrate wealth and power in the hands of a few. The situation deteriorates and God intervenes.
The practice of exploitation, fear and suffering produces a decisive moment in human history. This dramatic turn away from aggressive centralized power and a food monopoly features a fresh divine resolve for an alternative possibility.
This divine alternative comes into being through Moses’ dream of a people no longer exploited or suffering but living in the abundance of shared generosity which is the centre of YHWH’s dream. Brueggeman very helpfully contrasts this to Pharaoh’s dream, a nightmarish dream of scarcity which precipitated the crisis encouraging Abraham and others like him to seek the security of food in Egypt even if it meant slavery.
The bread of the wilderness, the bread that God gives us to eat, is a very different sort of bread. It is the bread of YHWH’s generosity,
a gift of abundance that breaks the deathly pattern of anxiety, fear, greed and anger, a miracle that always surprises because it is beyond our capacity of expectation.
Brueggemann points out that is this bread that fills the Israelites as they stand at Mt Sinai to receive God’s commands, commands that voice God’s dream of a neighbourhood and God’s intention for a society grounded in the common good.
The exploitative system of Pharaoh believed that it always needed more and was always entitled to more – more bricks, more control, more territory, more oil – until it had everything. But of course one cannot order a neighbourhood that way, because such practices and such assumptions generate only fear and competition that make the common good impossible Such greed is prohibited by YHWh’s kingdom of generosity. (25)
This is a challenging and thought provoking book that reminded me of how easily I seek my own good over the common good and how frequently I need to be challenged afresh with the values and principles of God’s new society. Our God is a generous God – not to me as an individual for the accumulation of personal wealth, but to us as a society of God’s people. This type of generosity must be shared, it must seek the common good and it must work for the welfare of all.
Journey to the Common Good, is a must read for all of us who seek to ground our lives in the shared values of God’s abundance and generosity rather than in the acquisitive values of our culture.
St Columba – Bishop’s House Iona
I just came across this beautiful prayer which was supposedly written by St Columba on his deathbed in the community of Iona (which he founded) in 597. So enriching and a wonderful reminder of the importance of peace and unity. Enjoy!
See that you be at peace among yourselves, my children, and love one another.
Follow the example of good men of old, and God will comfort you and help you,
both in this world and in the world which is to come.
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