reflection – Page 4 – Hear what the Spirit is saying

Wind Chimes: 4 Dec 2012

Good morning

As a new day dawns the chimes sound in greeting and joy. What do you hear?

Preparing for a guest

In this Advent season we prepare outwardly for Christmas: we hang lights and put up decorations, we bake goodies and wrap gifts. How will you prepare inwardly? The coming of Christ means that God will be incarnate: embodied, lovingly present, in the flesh in your life. Christ is coming into your life, into your heart, in a new way. Advent is a time to prepare a way for that to happen. God enters our lives without our planning or arranging; yet there are ways we can open the doors, and as the carol says of Jesus, “prepare him room.”

Imagine that Jesus were actually coming to live with you. What would you want to do to prepare? READ the rest of the “Prepare the way” meditation on Unfolding Light

Links to online Advent Calendars

Each of these has a different approach. Find one that helps you “prepare the way.”

Trinity Wall Street Online Advent Calendar

Busted Halo Online Advent Calendar

CREDO Online Advent Calendar

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God help us to be …

God help us to be honest
so our children will learn honesty.
Help us to be kind
so our children will learn kindness.
Help us to be faithful
so our children will learn faith.
Help us to love
so our children will be loving.

Marian Wright Edelman in
Guide My Feet, (1995).

“Black Friday” began the “Shopping Season” and retailers are relentless in keeping us focused on buying often and buying more. “#GivingTuesday” (11/27/12) was an invitation to give and use our “buying power” in a way that benefits others for more than just a day.

I intend to keep that invitation in front of us throughout the “Shopping Season.” I believe that It is always the right time to be generous. If you haven’t participated in “#GivingTuesday” how about today? ~dan

Today’s give-a-gift-to-help-others idea:

Children’s Defense Fund — “a non-profit child advocacy organization that has worked relentlessly for nearly 40 years to ensure a level playing field for all children.”

Looking for other give-a-gift-to-help-others ideas?
Go first to Charity Navigator for those ideas
and for an evaluation of how your dollars will be spent

Photo: Nao Sakaki on Indian Country Today Media Network

Wind Chimes: 3 Dec 2012

The chimes have begun to ring in the “new (church) year.” What do you hear?

Check out the Advent Calendar from Trinity Wall Street

Trinity (Episcopal) Wall Street has an online Advent Calendar for us. Every day features a short verse from scripture and an audio meditation from members of the church. Here is the link: http://www.trinitywallstreet.org/news/features/2012-advent-calendar

An Advent Calendar with a more “youthful” flavor

Here is another kind of Advent Calendar with a younger audience in mind:
http://bustedhalo.com/features/advent-calendar-2012

It is produced by The Paulist Fathers (a Roman Catholic Religious Order). Their ministry has the intriguing title of “Busted Halo Ministries” because they believe that “all God’s children are ‘saints in the making.’ Everyone is called to aspire toward the holiness and selflessness of a Mother Teresa or Saint Francis. At the same time we are all too often aware that this journey toward sainthood is one fraught with imperfections, struggles, and mistakes. Each of us sports a Halo that is either dented, scratched, tarnished… in some way Busted. Yet God loves us anyway and continually calls to bang out the dents and polish our halos up to a nice golden shine.” About BustedHalo

Yes, give us grace …

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

Collect for the First Sunday of Advent
Book of Common Prayer, p. 211

“Black Friday” began the “Shopping Season” and retailers are relentless in keeping us focused on buying often and buying more. “#GivingTuesday” (11/27/12) was an invitation to give and use your “buying power” in a way that benefits others for more than just a day.

I intend to keep that invitation in front of us throughout the “Shopping Season.” I believe (and am acting on my belief) that It is always the right time to be generous. If you haven’t participated in “#GivingTuesday” how about today? ~dan

Today’s give-a-gift-to-help-others idea:

Kiva — “a non-profit organization with a mission to connect people through lending to alleviate poverty.”

Looking for other give-a-gift-to-help-others ideas?
Go first to Charity Navigator for those ideas
and for an evaluation of how your dollars will be spent

Video: Advent in 2 minutes was produced by Busted Halo Ministries

Wind Chimes: 1 Dec 2012

The sounds in the chimes today seem to carry until the whole world is filled with their hope. What do you hear?

December 1 is World AIDS Day

This is a day of prayer, study, reflection, and action. Some statements and information for you:

A Statement on World AIDS Day from The Rev. Mark S. Hanson (Presiding Bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) and The Most. Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori (Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church)

World AIDS Day 2012: Esperança’s Esperança a reflection from the field by an Episcopal Relief and Development worker

The UN Press Release for World AIDS Day

On Twitter search/see: #worldaidsday

A Prayer on World AIDS Day

Loving God, you show yourself to those who are vulnerable and make your home with the poor and weak of this world; Warm our hearts with the fire of your Spirit. Help us to accept the challenge of AIDS. Protect the healthy, we pray, calm the frightened, give courage to those in pain, comfort the dying and give to the dead eternal life. Console the bereaved, we beg you, and strengthen those who care for the sick. May we, your people, using all our energy and imagination, and trusting in your steadfast love, be united with one another in conquering all disease and fear. —Author unknown

Shannon, Maggie Oman (2009-12-22). Prayers for Hope and Comfort: Reflections, Meditations, and Inspirations (pp. 170-171). RedWheelWeiser – A. Kindle Edition.

“Black Friday” began the “Shopping Season” and retailers are relentless in keeping us focused on buying often and buying more. “#GivingTuesday” was an invitation to give and use your “buying power” in a way that benefits others for more than just a day.

2 Suggestions for giving on this Day (one global, one local for desert dwellers)

The “Health Fund” of Episcopal Relief and Development. (Navigate to “Health” on the Donate Page to designate your donation go to ERD’s Health Fund)
Desert AIDS Project. Located in Palm Springs, California, the Desert AIDS Project (DAP) seeks to “meet the evolving medical and social service needs of people living with HIV/AIDS by providing direct services and advocacy, while working to prevent new infections through education and outreach.”

#GivingTuesday™ is a campaign to create a national day of giving at the start of the annual holiday season. It celebrates and encourages charitable activities that support nonprofit organizations.

Mission Statement
Go to the Home Page for #GivingTuesday
Wind Chimes for November 27, 2012

Image: UN Press Release for World AIDS Day

Wind Chimes: 30 Nov 2012

The LORD is near to the brokenhearted *
and will save those whose spirits are crushed.

Psalm 34:18
(from Morning Prayer, 11/30/12)

As always, the chimes sound, moved by the wind. Do the chimes sound comfort as you listen? Do the chimes sound like a call to action? What do you need in this moment? What do you hear?

How will this happen?

How will the Lord be “near” the brokenhearted unless one who knows the Lord goes—with compassion and empathy—and is present for as long as it takes? How will the Lord work to “save those whose spirits are crushed” unless one who knows the Lord goes with—conviction and courage—and acts on behalf of and with them? How will the Father’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven, unless we who know the Son (and the Father who sent him) act accordingly? What do you hear?

Continue, please, the spirit of #GivingTuesday

Looking for a “reputable” nonprofit organization that helps others?

I encourage you to find out more about your favorite nonprofit on Charity Navigator. It is also a great starting point if you have an idea about what kind of efforts you would like to support but don’t know which nonprofit would use your gift wisely.

#GivingTuesday™ is a campaign to create a national day of giving at the start of the annual holiday season. It celebrates and encourages charitable activities that support nonprofit organizations.

Mission Statement
Go to the Home Page for #GivingTuesday
Wind Chimes for November 27, 2012

Wind Chimes: 29 Nov 2012

Episcopal Relief and Development Gifts for Life Catalogue — A great place to continue #GivingTuesday generosity

What does “upside down” sound like?

Year C Lectionary features Luke’s Good News (Gospel)

We’ll begin “Year C” In our three-year cycle of lectionary readings this Sunday, December 2nd. Year C features the Gospel according to Luke. Here is a glimpse into Luke’s Good News:

Luke’s Gospel is the most broad-minded and the most forgiving. Every chance he gets, Luke has Jesus forgiving people, right up to the good thief on the cross. Luke is quite ready to see God as generous, gratuitous, and merciful. Mercy and inclusivity—Jesus’ ministry to outcasts, to Gentiles, to the poor—are emphasized a great deal in Luke. Luke’s Gospel is also called the gospel of women. Far more than any other evangelist, Luke brings women into Jesus’ life and shows Jesus’ very positive way of relating to women, especially for his time and culture.

Luke’s has also been called the gospel of absolute renunciation. For Luke, to be a disciple one has to let go of everything—not just money or other external idols, but inner idols and ego concerns as well. Luke advocates radically new social patterns of relationship. His is an upside-down gospel: “The first will be last and the last will be first” (Luke 13:30). Luke uses every story he can to show that what impresses people does not impress God, that people who think they are at the top are often, in God’s eyes, at the bottom, and that people who think they are at the bottom are, in God’s eyes, often at the top.

Adapted from The Good News According to Luke: Spiritual Reflections, pp. 38-40 and sent as an email by Richard Rohr. Online version of Daily Meditation: The Good News

Continue, please, the spirit of #GivingTuesday

It is always the right time to be generous. If you haven’t participated in “#GivingTuesday” how about today?

#GivingTuesday™ is a campaign to create a national day of giving at the start of the annual holiday season. It celebrates and encourages charitable activities that support nonprofit organizations.

Mission Statement
Go to the Home Page for #GivingTuesday
Wind Chimes for November 27, 2012

Image: Cover of the 2012 Gifts for Life Catalog from Episcopal Relief and Development

Wind Chimes: 27 Nov 2012 #GivingTuesday

#GivingTuesday™ is a campaign to create a national day of giving at the start of the annual holiday season. It celebrates and encourages charitable activities that support nonprofit organizations.

Mission Statement
Go to the Home Page for #GivingTuesday

Compassion is in the wind that moves the chimes today. What do you hear?

Earlier today …

… I was reminded of the wisdom of Marian Wright Edelman (ht Diane Noble and Gratefulness.org)

We must not, in trying to think about how we can make a big difference, ignore the small daily difference we can make which, over time, add up to big differences that we often cannot foresee.

Please make a difference today, no matter how small—it really does “add up.”

Let awareness inspire your giving today

To be grateful is to recognize the love of God in everything He has given us. . . and He has given us everything. Every breath we draw is a gift of His love, every moment of existence is a grace, for it brings with it immense graces from Him. Gratitude therefore takes nothing for granted, is never unresponsive, is constantly awakening to new wonder and to praise of the goodness of God. For the grateful person knows that God is good, not by hearsay but by experience. And that is what makes all the difference. . . .

Thomas Merton, Thoughts in Solitude

Photo: YouTube video introducing #GivingTuesday

Wind Chimes: 26 Nov 2012

Tuesday, November 27, 2012. Click to find out more

No one has ever become poor by giving.

Anne Frank

The wind does not require anything of you, it is a gift. The sounds made by the chimes do not require anything of you, they are a gift. Generosity sounds in the chimes today. How long will it last? Forever. What do you hear?

What a great idea: #GivingTuesday

We have a day for giving thanks. We have two for getting deals. This year help create #GivingTuesday™, the giving season’s opening day.

On Tuesday November 27, 2012 charities, families, businesses and individuals are coming together to transform the way people think about, talk about and participate in the giving season.

It’s a simple idea. Find a way for your family, your community, your company or your organization to join in acts of giving. Tell everyone you can about what you are doing and why it matters. Join a national celebration of our great tradition of generosity.
And together we’ll create ways to give more, give better and give smarter.
~#GivingTuesday introduction

Go to the Home Page for #GivingTuesday

In gratitude

In gratitude, in deep gratitude
for this moment
this experience
these people,
we give ourselves to you.

Lead us out
to live as changed people
because we have shared the Living Bread
and cannot remain the same.

Ask much of us,
expect much from us,
enable much by us,
encourage many through us.

So, Lord, may we live to your glory,
both as citizens of earth
and citizens of the commonwealth of heaven
where our pilgrimage will be complete.

Pritchard, John (2011-09-12). Pocket Prayers for Pilgrims (Search term: gratitude). Hymns Ancient and Modern Ltd. Kindle Edition.

Photo: Logo for #GivingTuesday from the website for #GivingTuesday

Wind Chimes: 23 Nov 2012

[Hannah] was deeply distressed
and prayed to the Lord,
and wept bitterly.

Hannah was praying silently;
only her lips moved,
but her voice was not heard

1 Samuel 1:10, 13 NRSV

Like a prayer, again, the wind sounds the chimes. What do you hear?

Prayer as a quest

The purpose of prayer is not prayer. The purpose of prayer is to come to love God as much as possible with all the insights into the nature and presence of God this world allows. […] in prayer we are seeking the God who is seeking us. … Prayer is the process of learning to listen.

“So What is the Prayer Life?” in Ideas in Passing by Joan Chittister (05/16/2011) excerpted from The Breath of the Soul: Reflections on Prayer by Joan Chittister (Twenty-Third Publications)

Prayer, like breathing …

Prayer is more like breathing. At times we may be especially conscious of it.…But breathing is never just one more task on our list of things to do. It is essential to life; without it we die. Prayer, like breathing, is essential to our life in God. Without it, our spiritual lives cannot be sustained.

From “Prayer” on Brother Give Us a Word a daily meditation of the Society of St. John the Evangelist (SSJE).

Be still

God says, “Be still and know that I am God.
I will be praised in all the nations;
I will be praised throughout the earth.”

Psalm 46:10 (New Century Version)

Photo: by Wing-Chi Poon on Wikimedia Commons

Wind Chimes: 22 Nov 2012

Grateful to hear the sounds at all, I pause and I pray. What do you hear? What is your response?

A Song of Creation: Glorify the Lord, all you works of the Lord

Invocation

Glorify the Lord, all you works of the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.

In the firmament of his power, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.

I The Cosmic Order

Glorify the Lord, you angels and all powers of the Lord, *
O heavens and all waters above the heavens.

Sun and moon and stars of the sky, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.

Glorify the Lord, every shower of rain and fall of dew, *
all winds and fire and heat. Winter and summer, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.

Glorify the Lord, O chill and cold, *
drops of dew and flakes of snow.

Frost and cold, ice and sleet, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.

Glorify the Lord, O nights and days, *
O shining light and enfolding dark.

Storm clouds and thunderbolts, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.

II The Earth and its Creatures

Let the earth glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.

Glorify the Lord, O mountains and hills, and all that grows upon the earth, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.

Glorify the Lord, O springs of water, seas, and streams, *
O whales and all that move in the waters.

All birds of the air, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.

Glorify the Lord, O beasts of the wild, *
and all you flocks and herds.

O men and women everywhere, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.

III The People of God

Let the people of God glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.

Glorify the Lord, O priests and servants of the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.

Glorify the Lord, O spirits and souls of the righteous, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.

You that are holy and humble of heart, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.

Doxology

Let us glorify the Lord: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.

In the firmament of his power, glorify the Lord, *
praise him and highly exalt him for ever.

The Book of Common Prayer, pp 88-90

Photo: by Booksworm on Wikimedia Commons

Wind Chimes: 20 Nov 2012

[Hannah] was deeply distressed
and prayed to the Lord,
and wept bitterly.

Hannah was praying silently;
only her lips moved,
but her voice was not heard

1 Samuel 1:10, 13 NRSV

Most days the wind constantly moves the chimes but we are not aware, we are easily distracted by other sounds. Slow down, pause, become aware, become attentive. What do you hear?

Every moment could be a moment of prayer

Consider prayer a lifting up of heart and mind to God with Brother David Steindl-Rast. This audio clip is approximately 3 minutes long.

Prayer as a lifting of heart and mind to God Play an audio clip

Begin with your experiences as you explore prayer

Most of us know the experience of prayer. We may remember prayers taught to us in childhood. Prayers offered in our church communities may have meaning for us. Many of us can recall a time of pain, agony or despair when a prayer was pulled out of us with surprising strength: “Oh God, help me, help me!” or “Why, God, why?”

Often we remember times of great wonder during which we experienced God’s presence. A sunset, a piece of music, or a baby’s smile he]ps us to remember that God speaks to us in many ways if we are open and willing to see and to listen. When our hearts are touched by the wonder of God we often respond with words of gratitude or praise or simply an inner smile of joy.

We are all pray-ers; we know how to pray. But when we think about learning to pray we forget our experience and turn outside ourselves for answers and insights. The first step in exploring the life of prayer is to begin with the experiences that are uniquely ours.

From an online essay, Exploring a Life of Prayer by Jane E. Vennard (archived on Religion Online)

A Morning Prayer

Lord you are in this place, Fill us with your power, Cover us with your peace, Show us your presence.

Lord help us to know, We are in your hands, We are under your protection, We are covered by your love.

Lord we ask you, today, To deliver us from evil, To guide us in our travels, To defend us from all harm.

Lord give us now, Eyes to see the invisible, Ears to hear your call, Hands to do your work, And hearts to respond to your love.

David Adam. Border Lands: The Best of David Adam’s Celtic Vision (p. 23). Kindle Edition.

Photo: by Sam Javanrouh and posted on Facebook by Indian Country Today Media Network on November 16, 2012.

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