Category: Examen
Devotion
Words for reflection on the day ahead or the day past.
Centering . . .
Whatever your task, do it wholeheartedly, as to God:
in teaching, give all you have;
in speaking, stir to the depths;
in giving, share liberally;
in helping, do so cheerfully.
Contribute to the needs of God’s people,
and practice hospitality.
[based on Colossians 3:23, Romans 12:7-10, 13. Chalice Worship, Cartwright and Harrison, Chalice Press, 1997, p. 390.]
Ponder . . .
Enthusiasm and contempt are both self-fulfilling
Someone who shows up with enthusiasm made a decision before she even encountered what was going on.
The same thing is true for the guy who scowls with contempt before the customer opens his mouth.
It’s a choice.
This choice is contagious.
This choice changes what will happen next.
This choice is at the heart of what it takes to be successful at making change or performing a service.
More than you imagine, we get what we expect.
[Seth Godin, April 9, 2015]
Remember . . .
We all walk a road. Sometimes alone by choice. Sometimes together by necessity.
They said to each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road,
while he was opening the scriptures to us?”
Remember a time when someone opened the scripture for you.
Remember a time when you opened the scripture for another?
What is similar about both those memories?
That same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem;
and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together.
They were saying, “The Lord has risen indeed, and he has appeared to Simon!”
Remember a time when you saw or experienced the risen Lord.
What did you do next?
Then they told what had happened on the road,
and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread.
Remember the first time you were at a table.
How is the good news of God known to you when you share bread with others?
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken, 1920
Devotion
Centering . . .
We seek salvation through our power
Yet you hang your useless bow in the clouds.
We seek salvation through our progeny
Yet your lineage follows lines of faithfulness.
We seek salvation through our independence
Yet your commandments plead for accountability.
We seek salvation through our denial
Yet you hold forth the serpent and beckon us to look.
We seek salvation through our intellect
Yet your wisdom is written on our hearts.
We seek salvation through our heritage
Yet you invite us to make a journey of faith.
May your invitation to journey
overcome our comfort with the familiar.
Katherine Hawker, 2003. http://liturgyoutside.net/Lent5B.html
Ponder . . .
Pumpkin Seeds
You can do two things with pumpkin seeds. Eat them, an excellent source of protein, or plant them, and watch a successful seed bring back 100 more.
The farmer who plants the seeds aggressively, without regard for, “hey, be careful, I could have eaten that seed,” often ends up with many more pumpkins and many more seeds. On the other hand, the person who guards all the seeds and then eats them ends up with not much.
And of course, money works the same way. Time, too.
Seth Godin, March 11, 2015
Remember . . .
A Franciscan Blessing
May this uncomfortable invocation open us to a more profound Gospel life.
May God bless you with discomfort,
At easy answers, half-truths,
And superficial relationships
So that you may live
Deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger
At injustice, oppression,
And exploitation of people,
So that you may work for
Justice, freedom and peace.
May God bless you with tears,
To shed for those who suffer pain,
Rejection, hunger and war,
So that you may reach out your hand
To comfort them and
To turn their pain to joy
And may God bless you
With enough foolishness
To believe that you can
Make a difference in the world,
So that you can do
What others claim cannot be done
To bring justice and kindness
To all our children and the poor.
Amen
shared with the IAS Group by the DC Seminar Leader