Today’s text
Luke 9:28-32
Now about eight days after this had been said, he took with him Peter, John and James and went up the mountain to pray. And it happened that, as he was praying, the aspect of his face was changed and his clothing became sparkling white. And suddenly there were two men talking to him; they were Moses and Elijah appearing in glory, and they were speaking of his passing which he was to accomplish in Jerusalem. Peter and his companions were heavy with sleep, but they woke up and saw his glory and the two men standing with him.
Reflection
They woke up… and saw. How many times do we experience this, Jesus?
They woke and saw your glory, a glory of oneness with the Mystery to whom you prayed and called, “Father,” in utter love and trust. They saw the glory of a life transparent to utter mystery and love, to the Infinite Source of their being and all that is.
They saw, awaking to a truth they had begun to grasp in the valleys and plains, but here on the mountain, in an instant, all was clear, so, too, was the answer to the question of every human heart: To whom shall I listen? Who will tell me truth? Who can I trust in all things and places?
This one. You, Jesus.
This certainty, this clarity would not last for them. On the mountain, things are clear. In the muddy day-to-day, the mind forgets, and hearts fail to cling to the truth of unveiled moments. Fear uproots our certainties, as joy and confidence fade.
Always, we must return from the mountain to valleys and plains where hard work awaits, where disappointments occur, where people are difficult and the things we most fear come true.
We return to the daily and mundane, where average joys and common frustrations tempt us to think that this is all there is; this is reality; this is good as it gets.
But the mountain top tells us we are made for something more, for the truth of the love that shines through you, Jesus. We are made to known, to bask in it, to live it.
We are made for constant remembrance of the glory we see in you, wherever and how ever we see that glory. For it is this and these moments that tell us the truth of our lives, a truth that must be reclaimed many, many times.
Until face-to-face, we dwell fully in the glory you are.
Pr. David L. Miller
http://prayingthemystery.blogspot.com/
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Thursday, February 11, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Today’s text
Luke 6:19-20
People tormented by unclean spirits were also cured and everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him because power came out of him that cured them all. Then fixing his eyes on his disciples he said: How blessed are you who are poor: the kingdom of God is yours.
Reflection
You turned your eyes from the desperate and hoping to find your friends. Overwhelming joy and gratitude swelled in your inner being, and you cried out, “Blessed. Blessed are you.”
I know why. You were healing, touching, making whole the broken lives and hearts of those who were loved far more than they could imagine. Their lives were … and are … enveloped in the height and depth of grace, held in the arms of the Loving Mystery for all eternity.
You saw this. No, you felt it. This grace expanded your heart to infinite proportions removing any and all doubt about the fundamental reality of our lives. We are held, known and treasured by an incalculable love that has neither beginning nor end.
Your heart stretched to the uttermost reaches of Earth’s forgotten corners,--and on … to the cosmic reach of darkest space. Your heart took it all in … and loved it, loved it as the Loving Mystery who is the Father embraces and loves it all.
Your heart and the Father’s were one, and now your heart and mine are no longer two but the same.
For a single moment, the blink of any eye, I enter your consciousness and see with the love that is there looking out at me … and at all that is.
And I, too, know beyond question why you cry out, “blessed are you poor.”
My faltering words cannot capture it, but I know you look at our broken and confused lives and see them enfolded in grace unbounded, and we in our poverty can receive, can know the grace that swells your heart in this tiny instant.
Our hearts, too, can expand and embrace the uttermost parts and the outermost reaches. We who are poor can know this. We can be this, for we know the emptiness of our hands and the incompleteness of our souls.
Yet, only in this state can we be filled by the fullness of the Love who is all Fullness, the holy and Loving Mystery who, in this moment, filled you, Jesus, and moved you to embrace the world without reservation in utter joy.
Make this joy mine not only for a moment, but for all time. It is in this moment, seeing through your eyes, that I know the end of time, and it is Love unspeakable.
And I know but one word for you, “blessed, blessed, blessed.
Beyond my wildest imagining, you are blessed, and it is exactly this into which you draw me. And all I have to offer is a single word of praise and a gratitude that’s beyond all words.
Pr. David L. Miller
Luke 6:19-20
People tormented by unclean spirits were also cured and everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him because power came out of him that cured them all. Then fixing his eyes on his disciples he said: How blessed are you who are poor: the kingdom of God is yours.
Reflection
You turned your eyes from the desperate and hoping to find your friends. Overwhelming joy and gratitude swelled in your inner being, and you cried out, “Blessed. Blessed are you.”
I know why. You were healing, touching, making whole the broken lives and hearts of those who were loved far more than they could imagine. Their lives were … and are … enveloped in the height and depth of grace, held in the arms of the Loving Mystery for all eternity.
You saw this. No, you felt it. This grace expanded your heart to infinite proportions removing any and all doubt about the fundamental reality of our lives. We are held, known and treasured by an incalculable love that has neither beginning nor end.
Your heart stretched to the uttermost reaches of Earth’s forgotten corners,--and on … to the cosmic reach of darkest space. Your heart took it all in … and loved it, loved it as the Loving Mystery who is the Father embraces and loves it all.
Your heart and the Father’s were one, and now your heart and mine are no longer two but the same.
For a single moment, the blink of any eye, I enter your consciousness and see with the love that is there looking out at me … and at all that is.
And I, too, know beyond question why you cry out, “blessed are you poor.”
My faltering words cannot capture it, but I know you look at our broken and confused lives and see them enfolded in grace unbounded, and we in our poverty can receive, can know the grace that swells your heart in this tiny instant.
Our hearts, too, can expand and embrace the uttermost parts and the outermost reaches. We who are poor can know this. We can be this, for we know the emptiness of our hands and the incompleteness of our souls.
Yet, only in this state can we be filled by the fullness of the Love who is all Fullness, the holy and Loving Mystery who, in this moment, filled you, Jesus, and moved you to embrace the world without reservation in utter joy.
Make this joy mine not only for a moment, but for all time. It is in this moment, seeing through your eyes, that I know the end of time, and it is Love unspeakable.
And I know but one word for you, “blessed, blessed, blessed.
Beyond my wildest imagining, you are blessed, and it is exactly this into which you draw me. And all I have to offer is a single word of praise and a gratitude that’s beyond all words.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, February 09, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Today’s text
Luke 6:17-19
He then came down with them and stopped at a piece of level ground where there was a large gathering of his disciples, with a great crowd of people from all parts of Judaea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon who had come to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. People tormented by unclean spirits were also cured and everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him because power came out of him that cured them all.
Reflection
The scene is unsettled, noisy, disordered. People come from across the countryside, jostling for position amid the crowd trying to glimpse you. They come with hope but are moved by desperation, seeking release from their torments.
They want to touch you and to be touched by something they can’t understand. But I understand, for this is what I want too.
Some have known little more than torment in their lives. But the deepest intuition of their humanity tells them life is more than agitation of body and spirit.
They come seeking release. They want freedom, the freedom of wholeness, of health, of souls and arms they can lift to the sky with joy.
They want to feel what their lives can be beyond the distortion and diminishment of disease and suffering. They want to feel alive and human, joyously eager for each new day, something they may have never felt.
And you cured them. You released them. I wonder what that moment was like. How did they feel? What expressions filtered across their faces as they realized they were free from the chains that bound them to lives of struggle?
I imagine tears of joy, laughter and disbelief. I imagine praise to God and grateful souls falling into your embrace. I see faces struck dumb in stunned silence, but I also hear the thump of feet running for the first time in years. I can’t think of if without smiling.
And that smile is magic. It’s healing and freeing. It covers my face and fills my soul, releasing me from the bondage of sadness.
I see you touch desperate souls and once again, for the umpteenth thousand time, I, too, am touched by the love that I see, the Love whom I see.
“Come and see,” you once urged a would-be disciple. “Come and see.”
Today, I came, and I saw. And in seeing, you give me the healing I need. As of old, you touch and set free. And I discover that, just maybe, I know exactly how they felt.
Pr. David L. Miller
Luke 6:17-19
He then came down with them and stopped at a piece of level ground where there was a large gathering of his disciples, with a great crowd of people from all parts of Judaea and Jerusalem and the coastal region of Tyre and Sidon who had come to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. People tormented by unclean spirits were also cured and everyone in the crowd was trying to touch him because power came out of him that cured them all.
Reflection
The scene is unsettled, noisy, disordered. People come from across the countryside, jostling for position amid the crowd trying to glimpse you. They come with hope but are moved by desperation, seeking release from their torments.
They want to touch you and to be touched by something they can’t understand. But I understand, for this is what I want too.
Some have known little more than torment in their lives. But the deepest intuition of their humanity tells them life is more than agitation of body and spirit.
They come seeking release. They want freedom, the freedom of wholeness, of health, of souls and arms they can lift to the sky with joy.
They want to feel what their lives can be beyond the distortion and diminishment of disease and suffering. They want to feel alive and human, joyously eager for each new day, something they may have never felt.
And you cured them. You released them. I wonder what that moment was like. How did they feel? What expressions filtered across their faces as they realized they were free from the chains that bound them to lives of struggle?
I imagine tears of joy, laughter and disbelief. I imagine praise to God and grateful souls falling into your embrace. I see faces struck dumb in stunned silence, but I also hear the thump of feet running for the first time in years. I can’t think of if without smiling.
And that smile is magic. It’s healing and freeing. It covers my face and fills my soul, releasing me from the bondage of sadness.
I see you touch desperate souls and once again, for the umpteenth thousand time, I, too, am touched by the love that I see, the Love whom I see.
“Come and see,” you once urged a would-be disciple. “Come and see.”
Today, I came, and I saw. And in seeing, you give me the healing I need. As of old, you touch and set free. And I discover that, just maybe, I know exactly how they felt.
Pr. David L. Miller
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