Saturday, August 29, 2015

Online Bible Meditation (Last of Summer Edition)




Suggested daily Lectio divina - Week of August 30, 2015

August 30: Psalm 84: 1-7
August 31: Ephesians 6: 10 - 20
September 1: John 6: 60 - 69
September 2: Psalm 84: 8 - 12
September 3: Hosea 11: 1 - 4
September 4: Matthew 10: 5 - 15
September 5: Isaiah 49: 1 - 6

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Poetry in Ordinary Time

Today...the gift of love...

Splitting an Order

by Ted Kooser
I like to watch an old man cutting a sandwich in half,
maybe an ordinary cold roast beef on whole wheat bread,
no pickles or onion, keeping his shaky hands steady
by placing his forearms firm on the edge of the table
and using both hands, the left to hold the sandwich in place,
and the right to cut it surely, corner to corner,
observing his progress through glasses that moments before
he wiped with his napkin, and then to see him lift half 
onto the extra plate that he had asked the server to bring,
and then to wait, offering the plate to his wife
while she slowly unrolls her napkin and places her spoon,
her knife and her fork in their proper places, 
then smoothes the starched white napkin over her knees
and meets his eyes and holds out both old hands to him. 

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Online Bible Meditation (High Summer Edition II)





Suggested daily Lectio divina - Week of August 23, 2015

August 23: Psalm 65: 9 - 13
August 24: Romans 1: 8 - 15
August 25: Psalm 67
August 26: Matthew 4: 18 - 22
August 27: Romans 1: 16 - 17
August 28: Matthew 4: 23 - 25
August 29: 1 Kings 8: 56  - 61

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Online Bible Meditation (High Summer Edition)



With apologies for the delay...it's a short week this week!

Suggested daily Lectio divina - Week of August 16, 2015...abbreviated...
August 18: 1 Kings 3: 3 -14
August 19: Ephesians 5: 15 - 20
August 20: John 6: 51 - 58
August 21: Psalm 65: 1 - 8
August 22: Hosea 6: 1 - 6

Saturday, August 15, 2015

Audio Divina: "Holy As a Day is Spent"

Celebrating everyday sacred with singer-songwriter Carrie Newcomer...



Holy As A Day Is Spent
Holy is the dish and drain
The soap and sink, the cup and plate
And the warm wool socks, and the cold white tile
Shower heads and good dry towels

And frying eggs sound like psalms
With a bit of salt measured in my palm
It’s all a part of a sacrament
As holy as a day is spent

Holy is the busy street
And cars that boom with passion’s beat
And the check out girl, Counting change
And the hands that shook my hands today

Hymns of geese fly overhead
And stretch their wings like their parents did
Blessed be the dog
That runs in her sleep
The catch that wild and elusive thing

Holy is a familiar room and the quiet moments in the afternoon
And folding sheets like folding hands
To pray as only laundry can

I’m letting go of all I fear
Like autumn leaves of earth and air
For summer came and summer went
As holy as a day is spent

Holy is the place I stand
To give whatever small good I can
The empty page, the open book
Redemption everywhere I look

Unknowingly we slow our pace
In the shade of unexpected grace
With grateful smiles and sad lament
As holy as a day is spent

And morning light sings “providence”
As holy as a day is spent

Sunday, August 9, 2015

Online Bible Meditation (Garden Edition)



Suggested daily Lectio divina - Week of August 9, 2015

August 9: Mark 10: 17 -  31
August 10: Isaiah 42: 5 - 9
August 11: Lamentations 3: 10 - 24
August 12: Psalm 8
August 13: Deuteronomy 4: 32 - 40
August 14: Matthew 13: 44 - 50
August 15: Psalm 9: 1 - 4

Thursday, August 6, 2015

Poetry in Ordinary Time

This week, from Elizabeth Alexander...an African American poet...and her poem that she wrote (and read) especially for President Barak Obama's Inauguration in January 2009: a song of praise...and a song about each of us, every day, here in the Western world...

Praise Song for the Day

BY ELIZABETH ALEXANDER
A Poem for Barack Obama’s Presidential Inauguration
Each day we go about our business,
walking past each other, catching each other’s
eyes or not, about to speak or speaking.

All about us is noise. All about us is
noise and bramble, thorn and din, each
one of our ancestors on our tongues.

Someone is stitching up a hem, darning
a hole in a uniform, patching a tire,
repairing the things in need of repair.

Someone is trying to make music somewhere,
with a pair of wooden spoons on an oil drum,
with cello, boom box, harmonica, voice.

A woman and her son wait for the bus.
A farmer considers the changing sky.
A teacher says, Take out your pencils. Begin.

We encounter each other in words, words
spiny or smooth, whispered or declaimed,
words to consider, reconsider.

We cross dirt roads and highways that mark
the will of some one and then others, who said
I need to see what’s on the other side.

I know there’s something better down the road.
We need to find a place where we are safe.
We walk into that which we cannot yet see.

Say it plain: that many have died for this day.
Sing the names of the dead who brought us here,
who laid the train tracks, raised the bridges,

picked the cotton and the lettuce, built
brick by brick the glittering edifices
they would then keep clean and work inside of.

Praise song for struggle, praise song for the day.
Praise song for every hand-lettered sign,
the figuring-it-out at kitchen tables.

Some live by love thy neighbor as thyself,
others by first do no harm or take no more
than you need. What if the mightiest word is love?

Love beyond marital, filial, national,
love that casts a widening pool of light,
love with no need to pre-empt grievance.

In today’s sharp sparkle, this winter air,
any thing can be made, any sentence begun.
On the brink, on the brim, on the cusp,

praise song for walking forward in that light.

And listen to the poet as she reads it on the day:



What if the mightiest word is 'love'?

Saturday, August 1, 2015

Online Bible Meditation (Blue Moon Edition)




Blue Moon...July 31, 2015

Suggested daily Lectio divina - Week of August 2, 2015

August 2: Acts 16: 11 - 15
August 3: Deuteronomy 15: 10 - 15
August 4: Luke 11: 1 - 4
August 5: Luke 11: 5 - 13
August 6: Ephesians 4; 1 - 16
August 7: Psalm 67
August 8: Ephesians 4: 25 - 32