Dear All,
Time seems to be moving fast and we are into October. The dying down of the year can be a bit depressing but if we can remain mindful that it is all part of the regeneration process that leads though to the spring & to resurrection, then it is all possible.
Autumn colours are strong & for me this brings a sense of God’s presence in the world around us. It is this ‘presence of God’ theme that we are focussed on today. The attachments look at it from different points of view. We hope you find some worthwhile insights from one or more of them.
The blessing is from Sacred Weave – ‘Let the peace of the Father’.
Let the peace of the Father be with you this night,
The Son keep you safe,
And the Holy Spirit guide you in your sleep;
In your sleep, in your sleep.
With our love
Re-creating God’s Presence
by Henri Nouwen
All Christian action—whether it is visiting the sick, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, or working for a more just and peaceful society—is a manifestation of the human solidarity revealed to us in the house of God. It is not an anxious human effort to create a better world. It is a confident expression of the truth that in Christ, death, evil, and destruction have been overcome. It is not a fearful attempt to restore a broken order. It is a joyful assertion that in Christ all order has already been restored. It is not a nervous effort to bring divided people together, but a celebration of an already established unity. This action is not activism. An activist wants to heal, restore, redeem, and re-create, but those acting within the house of God point through their action to the healing, restoring, redeeming, and re-creating presence of God.
Signs
Piers Plowright
Some sentences leap out
of the Big Black Book
like friends:
‘Supposing him to be the gardener’
‘Did not our hearts burn within us?’
‘Come & have breakfast’ –
Divine ends
dressed in the everyday:
gardener, lover, cook,
standing in for God,
the truth not far away
but near as breath:
fruit, fire, & charcoaled fish
holding the Word.
These signs seem right
to me:
no cloud, no lightning flash, no mystery,
no ‘Unknown God’ to puzzle out.
But something, real, solid,
near-at-hand –
and free.
The Worst Thing We Ever Did
by Chelan Harkin
The worst thing we ever did
was put God in the sky
out of reach
pulling the divinity
from the leaf,
sifting out the holy from our bones,
insisting God isn’t bursting dazzlement
through everything we’ve made
a hard commitment to see as ordinary,
stripping the sacred from everywhere
to put in a cloud man elsewhere,
prying closeness from your heart.
The worst thing we ever did
was take the dance and the song
out of prayer
made it sit up straight
and cross its legs
removed it of rejoicing
wiped clean its hip sway,
its questions,
its ecstatic yowl,
its tears.
The worst thing we ever did is pretend
God isn’t the easiest thing
in this Universe
available to every soul
in every breath.
Amen.
Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift,
is from above, coming down from the Giver of lights,
with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
– James 1.17
Beloved, every little thing
is a signed card from you.
Every blade of grass and breath of air,
each moment has your blessing in it.
Each bit and trinket is a gift.
In every thought or feeling, sight or sound,
there is what that thing says,
and what you whisper besides,
and there is you.
Even in the hurts and disasters
there is your voice, your calm hand,
the unfolding of grace.
At the end of the day
my heart is strewn with wrapping paper.