Today’s text
Luke 12:49-51
[Jesus] also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain;’ and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat;’ and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
Prayer
The day begins. The time is now, the only time of which I can be sure. The past rushes in agitating minor anxieties about the future, which soon will rush into the present like a swollen stream; stopping for no one, its inexorable current flows quickly by, into the past, receding into the mists of memory, leaving me again with now.
The time is now. It is always now. It is all I have. And so are you, Jesus. You are now, always, and we always have you near.
So I know the time: the time is to breathe you into my lungs that breathing out I may issue a love eternal into every now that you give me.
For you are now, and you are here, and you are eternity’s great mystery as close as my breath.
So let it be.
Pr. David L. Miller
http://prayingthemystery.blogspot.com/
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Thursday, August 23, 2007
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Today’s text
Luke 12:49-51
[Jesus] also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain;’ and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat;’ and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?"
Prayer
What time is it Jesus? It is the time of your presence, the time of your in-breaking, the time when the sturdy links that inexorably bind past to present and future in continuous flow fail to hold time together. They pull apart and clatter on the floor, freeing mind and soul for a future no past can predict or control.
This is now, every now, eternally now, where ever you are present now. And you are the Eternal always present. Your nearness bears an invitation to leave what we have been and known for a mysterious future we cannot make, hold or guarantee. We can only let it unfold or refuse it altogether.
Your nearness is a constantly open door to realities undreamed, Jesus, except by that mysterious love-struck intuition whose only words are tears of awareness that there is a something more the soul must have. And, joy! That hovering awareness knows also a Giver who is pleased to pour that liquid grace into the dark corridors of soul that long for the light of day. My soul, Jesus.
With more of this life behind me than ahead, I awaken hungry for a future unlike any past I have known or lived. Freed, I would be, from the half-life I have lived, caged by my firm grasp of an empty self that is not love. And I have the audacity or naiveté to believe, more than ever, that such life is a breath away, and the secret is surrender to that hovering awareness of Spirit that is the now of your nearness, inviting me to freedom. Eternity begins now.
Pr. David L. Miller
Luke 12:49-51
[Jesus] also said to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, ‘It is going to rain;’ and so it happens. And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, ‘There will be scorching heat;’ and it happens. You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?"
Prayer
What time is it Jesus? It is the time of your presence, the time of your in-breaking, the time when the sturdy links that inexorably bind past to present and future in continuous flow fail to hold time together. They pull apart and clatter on the floor, freeing mind and soul for a future no past can predict or control.
This is now, every now, eternally now, where ever you are present now. And you are the Eternal always present. Your nearness bears an invitation to leave what we have been and known for a mysterious future we cannot make, hold or guarantee. We can only let it unfold or refuse it altogether.
Your nearness is a constantly open door to realities undreamed, Jesus, except by that mysterious love-struck intuition whose only words are tears of awareness that there is a something more the soul must have. And, joy! That hovering awareness knows also a Giver who is pleased to pour that liquid grace into the dark corridors of soul that long for the light of day. My soul, Jesus.
With more of this life behind me than ahead, I awaken hungry for a future unlike any past I have known or lived. Freed, I would be, from the half-life I have lived, caged by my firm grasp of an empty self that is not love. And I have the audacity or naiveté to believe, more than ever, that such life is a breath away, and the secret is surrender to that hovering awareness of Spirit that is the now of your nearness, inviting me to freedom. Eternity begins now.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Today’s text
Luke 12:49-51
“From now on, five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law and her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
Prayer
No! Don’t separate me from my family, Jesus. Don’t cut me off from my children, my grandchildren, my beloved. For I crave the presence of their faces. They are a most holy gift for which I thank you with my tears.
Our families have far too much division already, Jesus. We want … we need our relationships to be sacramental of the great Loving Mystery you are, bearing the welcome and love we crave. We wander the earth looking for soft places to land where we may be what we are without worry or pretense, no longer wondering if we shall ever know home. God knows, that journey has been long in my life, and in some ways it continues still.
And here you are, stirring up trouble, right where we most need and have reason to expect the comfort of arms that welcome and hearts that interlock with our own. Do you really need to do this? Is it necessary?
It seems so, Jesus. You have been an undeniable breaking point through the centuries, tearing at families and moving the misguided to take up arms in your name without a clue of the irony they commit.
But I keep coming back to you, Jesus. Despite the division, despite the fact that you are the distance I feel between myself and friends and family members who may never accept or grasp the deep places and commitments where you dwell in this soul of mine.
I pray for them to know the joy of knowing you, but my prayers echo and my careful words of witness fall flat, failing to speak the wonder you are and the beauty of the kingdom you desire. How I can I explain this attraction to them when I have such trouble understanding it myself?
Keep calling to me Jesus that I may never be alien to you, counted among those who do not know you. For knowing you is life. May I live as an emblem of your life even when divisions come and distance troubles.
Pr. David L. Miller
Luke 12:49-51
“From now on, five in one household will be divided, three against two and two against three; they will be divided: father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law and her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.”
Prayer
No! Don’t separate me from my family, Jesus. Don’t cut me off from my children, my grandchildren, my beloved. For I crave the presence of their faces. They are a most holy gift for which I thank you with my tears.
Our families have far too much division already, Jesus. We want … we need our relationships to be sacramental of the great Loving Mystery you are, bearing the welcome and love we crave. We wander the earth looking for soft places to land where we may be what we are without worry or pretense, no longer wondering if we shall ever know home. God knows, that journey has been long in my life, and in some ways it continues still.
And here you are, stirring up trouble, right where we most need and have reason to expect the comfort of arms that welcome and hearts that interlock with our own. Do you really need to do this? Is it necessary?
It seems so, Jesus. You have been an undeniable breaking point through the centuries, tearing at families and moving the misguided to take up arms in your name without a clue of the irony they commit.
But I keep coming back to you, Jesus. Despite the division, despite the fact that you are the distance I feel between myself and friends and family members who may never accept or grasp the deep places and commitments where you dwell in this soul of mine.
I pray for them to know the joy of knowing you, but my prayers echo and my careful words of witness fall flat, failing to speak the wonder you are and the beauty of the kingdom you desire. How I can I explain this attraction to them when I have such trouble understanding it myself?
Keep calling to me Jesus that I may never be alien to you, counted among those who do not know you. For knowing you is life. May I live as an emblem of your life even when divisions come and distance troubles.
Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, August 20, 2007
Monday, August 20, 2007
Today’s text
Luke 12:49-51
“I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.”
Prayer
The sorrow in these words weaves the texture of your life, Jesus--and ours, if we love you. Did you want the fire you ignited? Did you long for the conflict? Do you come to us itching for a fight? Or is conflict simply unavoidable when unalloyed life and love without limit appears amid the conditions of our bondage?
For we dwell in bondage to our sin and sloth, greed and apathy, while others around your earth scratch for food. Each day they search for a single moment when their life is something other than an intolerable burden. So there is bondage all around.
But your name is freedom. You are liberation from the oppressions of body and spirit that prevent each from supping the sacramental pleasures of earth, eating and drinking, justice and peace, the joy of life graced with your unlimited loving nearness.
This is your desire. The fire you cast is born of that holy desire burning in the heart of God, which you bear. And the divine heart bears you--and us--into conflicts we’d rather avoid. But we cannot avoid them, not if we are to stand with you, Jesus. For you stand as the holy emblem of the desire of God in the face of all that denies or limits the fullness God intends for every child of earth, and earth itself. And you invite us into your struggle.
I have little strength and often no stomach to go where your divine heart takes me, Jesus. So free me from my fear that I might be wholly yours. There is nothing else I really want.
Pr. David L. Miller
Luke 12:49-51
“I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed! Do you think that I have come to bring peace to the earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.”
Prayer
The sorrow in these words weaves the texture of your life, Jesus--and ours, if we love you. Did you want the fire you ignited? Did you long for the conflict? Do you come to us itching for a fight? Or is conflict simply unavoidable when unalloyed life and love without limit appears amid the conditions of our bondage?
For we dwell in bondage to our sin and sloth, greed and apathy, while others around your earth scratch for food. Each day they search for a single moment when their life is something other than an intolerable burden. So there is bondage all around.
But your name is freedom. You are liberation from the oppressions of body and spirit that prevent each from supping the sacramental pleasures of earth, eating and drinking, justice and peace, the joy of life graced with your unlimited loving nearness.
This is your desire. The fire you cast is born of that holy desire burning in the heart of God, which you bear. And the divine heart bears you--and us--into conflicts we’d rather avoid. But we cannot avoid them, not if we are to stand with you, Jesus. For you stand as the holy emblem of the desire of God in the face of all that denies or limits the fullness God intends for every child of earth, and earth itself. And you invite us into your struggle.
I have little strength and often no stomach to go where your divine heart takes me, Jesus. So free me from my fear that I might be wholly yours. There is nothing else I really want.
Pr. David L. Miller
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Today’s text
Luke 12:35-37
“Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when me comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them.”
Prayer
You offer no threat in these words, dear Friend, only invitation and promise. You come, that’s the promise. You come; that’s your promise. You come and are eager to bless, giving yourself in holy and humble service to we who hold our breath for your arrival.
You are always coming, Jesus. You come to a virgin’s womb. You come to the unknown and unheralded. You come to the hungry and lost. You come to your friends and your enemies. And you come from your tomb, risen and new, so that your coming transcends time and space. You come to every time and place at once, past, future and now to me in this quiet space. You come and always will.
Your invitation is to light a lamp and keep our hearts and eyes open. For you appear at times and in guises we cannot predict: Maybe in the news that a faraway colleague has died that moves you to sudden tears and prayer. Maybe the guy who helps broken old folks into the clinic on 55th, or the vibrant voice on the phone that leaves you a little more alive. You often surprise me, Jesus, coming in word, a story, a face that glows with a grace transparent to the eternal.
You come. It does not matter how. What matters is opening heart and mind to receive you. For in receiving you, you serve us, giving life, healing heart and soul, feeding us with a bread that satisfies that hunger that finds fulfillment no where else.
Pr. David L. Miller
Luke 12:35-37
“Be dressed for action and have your lamps lit; be like those who are waiting for their master to return from the wedding banquet, so they may open the door for him as soon as he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master finds alert when me comes; truly I tell you, he will fasten his belt and have them sit down to eat, and he will come and serve them.”
Prayer
You offer no threat in these words, dear Friend, only invitation and promise. You come, that’s the promise. You come; that’s your promise. You come and are eager to bless, giving yourself in holy and humble service to we who hold our breath for your arrival.
You are always coming, Jesus. You come to a virgin’s womb. You come to the unknown and unheralded. You come to the hungry and lost. You come to your friends and your enemies. And you come from your tomb, risen and new, so that your coming transcends time and space. You come to every time and place at once, past, future and now to me in this quiet space. You come and always will.
Your invitation is to light a lamp and keep our hearts and eyes open. For you appear at times and in guises we cannot predict: Maybe in the news that a faraway colleague has died that moves you to sudden tears and prayer. Maybe the guy who helps broken old folks into the clinic on 55th, or the vibrant voice on the phone that leaves you a little more alive. You often surprise me, Jesus, coming in word, a story, a face that glows with a grace transparent to the eternal.
You come. It does not matter how. What matters is opening heart and mind to receive you. For in receiving you, you serve us, giving life, healing heart and soul, feeding us with a bread that satisfies that hunger that finds fulfillment no where else.
Pr. David L. Miller
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Today’s text
Luke 12:32-34
“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven; where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, your heart will be also.”
Prayer
You are the unfailing treasure, Holy One. You are the One who never wears out and cannot be destroyed. It is you I need and would hold every moment in this purse, this soul of mine that holds also much of the detritus of ego-driven life.
If I could but hold you fast, touching your nearness, I would savor the thought of you at all times and in all things. You would fill me to overflowing with the unfailing fullness of your love. My words would be so different, more filled with grace, giving life in all circumstances, not just in rare moments.
But I am full of the cares of the day, decisions to make, deadlines to meet, disappointments with self and others, the drive to justify myself and to ferret out the “right thing” to do and say. There is a life to be lived and work to be done. It absorbs my consciousness, and I forget. I seek myself in all these things, not you, but I find no treasure there.
Turning turn from the heart-shattering awareness of your love, I devolve into something much less than the human soul I am when I am near and full of you.
Forgive me for fouling your earth with my pettiness. Don’t let me forget. Make my heart large and expansive like yours and fill it with your Fullness, which is truest treasure.
Pr. David L. Miller
Luke 12:32-34
“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give alms. Make purses for yourselves that do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven; where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, your heart will be also.”
Prayer
You are the unfailing treasure, Holy One. You are the One who never wears out and cannot be destroyed. It is you I need and would hold every moment in this purse, this soul of mine that holds also much of the detritus of ego-driven life.
If I could but hold you fast, touching your nearness, I would savor the thought of you at all times and in all things. You would fill me to overflowing with the unfailing fullness of your love. My words would be so different, more filled with grace, giving life in all circumstances, not just in rare moments.
But I am full of the cares of the day, decisions to make, deadlines to meet, disappointments with self and others, the drive to justify myself and to ferret out the “right thing” to do and say. There is a life to be lived and work to be done. It absorbs my consciousness, and I forget. I seek myself in all these things, not you, but I find no treasure there.
Turning turn from the heart-shattering awareness of your love, I devolve into something much less than the human soul I am when I am near and full of you.
Forgive me for fouling your earth with my pettiness. Don’t let me forget. Make my heart large and expansive like yours and fill it with your Fullness, which is truest treasure.
Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, August 13, 2007
Monday, August 13, 2007
Today’s text
Luke 12:32
“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
Prayer
Do you smile when you say this, Jesus? Do joy and yearning fill you as you survey the faces before you? Do you look for a glimmer of understanding in their eyes? Do you wait to see if their minds will race and their hearts dance as it dawns on them that these are the happiest words ever spoken, the most joyous in all the world’s weary history?
Please know that my heart dances, Jesus, and I cannot sit still in my chair. For you bring news that is better than any that ever has been or will be. It is the Father’s good pleasure to give, and to give to me, and to give no small thing but the life of fullness and eternity, where every tear is wiped from every eye and death is no more, where all things are engulfed in your delight and fear dissolves in a bottomless sea of mercy: for all is well, and all is in you.
But I already knew this, my Beloved. I knew it is your joy to give, for you have woven that awareness into my soul, fashioned in your image and restored in your likeness. I find highest joy in blessing other souls with a word of care and hope, a word that awakens in them the awareness that they, too, are possessed by a love that renders them speechless. There is nothing better. It brings tears to my eyes.
To yours, too? Pardon me for speaking of you in such human terms. I know you are more, always more. I cannot comprehend you. But you let me taste your joy and know what brings you pleasure. And that alone is all I need to live in expectation and to die in hope.
Pr. David L. Miller
Luke 12:32
“Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.”
Prayer
Do you smile when you say this, Jesus? Do joy and yearning fill you as you survey the faces before you? Do you look for a glimmer of understanding in their eyes? Do you wait to see if their minds will race and their hearts dance as it dawns on them that these are the happiest words ever spoken, the most joyous in all the world’s weary history?
Please know that my heart dances, Jesus, and I cannot sit still in my chair. For you bring news that is better than any that ever has been or will be. It is the Father’s good pleasure to give, and to give to me, and to give no small thing but the life of fullness and eternity, where every tear is wiped from every eye and death is no more, where all things are engulfed in your delight and fear dissolves in a bottomless sea of mercy: for all is well, and all is in you.
But I already knew this, my Beloved. I knew it is your joy to give, for you have woven that awareness into my soul, fashioned in your image and restored in your likeness. I find highest joy in blessing other souls with a word of care and hope, a word that awakens in them the awareness that they, too, are possessed by a love that renders them speechless. There is nothing better. It brings tears to my eyes.
To yours, too? Pardon me for speaking of you in such human terms. I know you are more, always more. I cannot comprehend you. But you let me taste your joy and know what brings you pleasure. And that alone is all I need to live in expectation and to die in hope.
Pr. David L. Miller
Friday, August 10, 2007
Friday, August 10, 2007
Friday, August 10, 2007
Today’s text
Luke 12:16-21
Then [Jesus] told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do for I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink and be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”
Prayer
What is it to be rich toward you, Holy Mystery? Is it not to reverence you in all places as the fountain of all life and blessing? Shall I not live in gratitude and humility, in soul recognition that every breath I take is the effluence of your unspeakable generosity?
I feel the sun and see how it opens the roses in their beds after the night rain. They praise you in electric red and whispering yellow. I delight in the curve of my grandson’s playful smile, so like his mother. Tears rise at the goodness of being alive, of knowing love and loving. I am startled and moved by the beauty of other souls. I am enlarged by the thoughts I receive as a gift from minds better than my own.
I could go on, Holy One; you know I can. I haven’t yet spoken of the love I feel in Jesus’ words, protecting me from the poverty of soul that withers so many. But you have taught my heart. I am a guest at the holy table of life, and you are the host who delights in giving, and in giving to me. This, I know, and it is richness and freedom.
For I know, too, what it is to be poor, small of soul. In poverty, I feverishly grasp what I can for myself. Fearing scarcity, I accumulate and accomplish what I can. I play the fool, vainly believing that I can secure my life and heart so that I will have enough, enough wealth, enough reputation, enough friends, enough of whatever I fear wanting. The soul closes in upon itself and implodes, disheartened and disconnected from the Holy Source of all that’s needful.
But today, I am not poor but rich in the love and blessing with which you would fill me and all that is. So let me, as my brother Jesus, pour the wealth of your generosity into every encounter and work I do that I may praise you as well as my roses.
Pr. David L. Miller
Today’s text
Luke 12:16-21
Then [Jesus] told them a parable: “The land of a rich man produced abundantly. And he thought to himself, ‘What should I do for I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink and be merry.’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life is being demanded of you. And the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’ So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”
Prayer
What is it to be rich toward you, Holy Mystery? Is it not to reverence you in all places as the fountain of all life and blessing? Shall I not live in gratitude and humility, in soul recognition that every breath I take is the effluence of your unspeakable generosity?
I feel the sun and see how it opens the roses in their beds after the night rain. They praise you in electric red and whispering yellow. I delight in the curve of my grandson’s playful smile, so like his mother. Tears rise at the goodness of being alive, of knowing love and loving. I am startled and moved by the beauty of other souls. I am enlarged by the thoughts I receive as a gift from minds better than my own.
I could go on, Holy One; you know I can. I haven’t yet spoken of the love I feel in Jesus’ words, protecting me from the poverty of soul that withers so many. But you have taught my heart. I am a guest at the holy table of life, and you are the host who delights in giving, and in giving to me. This, I know, and it is richness and freedom.
For I know, too, what it is to be poor, small of soul. In poverty, I feverishly grasp what I can for myself. Fearing scarcity, I accumulate and accomplish what I can. I play the fool, vainly believing that I can secure my life and heart so that I will have enough, enough wealth, enough reputation, enough friends, enough of whatever I fear wanting. The soul closes in upon itself and implodes, disheartened and disconnected from the Holy Source of all that’s needful.
But today, I am not poor but rich in the love and blessing with which you would fill me and all that is. So let me, as my brother Jesus, pour the wealth of your generosity into every encounter and work I do that I may praise you as well as my roses.
Pr. David L. Miller
Thursday, August 09, 2007
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Today’s text
Luke 12:13-15
Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge and arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.
Prayer
There are many kinds of greed. I am certainly guilty of several varieties, most often I suppose the greed for reputation and status. I want to be considered smarter, wiser, better, more articulate, gracious and caring than I really am.
And isn’t that the crux of greed, to convince others we are more than we are, lest they see our smallness and discover the vulnerability, the uncertainty we hide? We clutch our fear and fragility and crouch behind the crumbling façade of accomplishment and accumulation that time, soon enough, erodes, exposing what we never needed to hide--our humanity.
For our vulnerability is always a secret grace, offering a paradoxical peace. The smallness we fear invites us to flee into the arms of other needy souls and the immensity of God’s grace, there to find that when we are weak we are strong.
We fly to God on the wings of our needs. The greeds that consume--for wealth or status, for reputation or even to accumulate books and relationships--impoverish the soul, leaving us more fearful and vulnerable. Greed isolates, refusing to walk the bridge of common human need into the receiving arms and unfailing grace of the One who always awaits us.
So let me be on guard for all kinds of greed, dearest Jesus. And may your grace flow through the open windows of my need.
Pr. David L. Miller
Luke 12:13-15
Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge and arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.
Prayer
There are many kinds of greed. I am certainly guilty of several varieties, most often I suppose the greed for reputation and status. I want to be considered smarter, wiser, better, more articulate, gracious and caring than I really am.
And isn’t that the crux of greed, to convince others we are more than we are, lest they see our smallness and discover the vulnerability, the uncertainty we hide? We clutch our fear and fragility and crouch behind the crumbling façade of accomplishment and accumulation that time, soon enough, erodes, exposing what we never needed to hide--our humanity.
For our vulnerability is always a secret grace, offering a paradoxical peace. The smallness we fear invites us to flee into the arms of other needy souls and the immensity of God’s grace, there to find that when we are weak we are strong.
We fly to God on the wings of our needs. The greeds that consume--for wealth or status, for reputation or even to accumulate books and relationships--impoverish the soul, leaving us more fearful and vulnerable. Greed isolates, refusing to walk the bridge of common human need into the receiving arms and unfailing grace of the One who always awaits us.
So let me be on guard for all kinds of greed, dearest Jesus. And may your grace flow through the open windows of my need.
Pr. David L. Miller
Wednesday, August 08, 2007
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Today’s text
Luke 12:13-15
Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge and arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.
Prayer
You are not judge or arbitrator, are you Jesus? With the wave of a hand, you dismiss such nonsense and misunderstanding. You refuse any course that leads away from the desire that animates your every word and deed, the desire that is your identity. You know who are, what you are to do, and in utter freedom you reject every invitation to do or be something else, something less than the burning fire of divine love whom you are.
I admire your clarity and tenacity, your self-possession and assurance. I envy your reflexive refusal to undertake anything disconnected from the core of your being. I wish I were so single minded, so simple-hearted and clear about being that which the Loving Mystery has made me. For I, too, am fashioned to be and to bear that Love which has no name, that mystery to whom you are so utterly transparent.
Thank you for this transparency, for in you I taste the Love who refuses to be anything else, a taste that tells me Love will not let me go.
But I would be truer and more simple than I am. I long to be as clear and set upon living in and from the Love who enfolds and fills me, so that I, too, may not be so much less than you, blessed Jesus, intend. May it be so, at least for today. We’ll talk about it again tomorrow.
Pr. David L. Miller
Luke 12:13-15
Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge and arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.
Prayer
You are not judge or arbitrator, are you Jesus? With the wave of a hand, you dismiss such nonsense and misunderstanding. You refuse any course that leads away from the desire that animates your every word and deed, the desire that is your identity. You know who are, what you are to do, and in utter freedom you reject every invitation to do or be something else, something less than the burning fire of divine love whom you are.
I admire your clarity and tenacity, your self-possession and assurance. I envy your reflexive refusal to undertake anything disconnected from the core of your being. I wish I were so single minded, so simple-hearted and clear about being that which the Loving Mystery has made me. For I, too, am fashioned to be and to bear that Love which has no name, that mystery to whom you are so utterly transparent.
Thank you for this transparency, for in you I taste the Love who refuses to be anything else, a taste that tells me Love will not let me go.
But I would be truer and more simple than I am. I long to be as clear and set upon living in and from the Love who enfolds and fills me, so that I, too, may not be so much less than you, blessed Jesus, intend. May it be so, at least for today. We’ll talk about it again tomorrow.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, August 07, 2007
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Today’s text
Luke 12:13-15
Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge and arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.
Prayer
In what does our life consist, dear Friend? You do not answer the question you beg, Jesus. You stand there, and the message is clear enough. Our life consists in you, in loving you but first in knowing you as the love of the Father’s heart made clear and mine.
You are my life. Apart from you I do not live, for I do not dwell that land of dreams where I know love eternal and uncreated filling and surrounding me, engulfing all that is in a wash of divine mercy. I do not dwell in a world where you, blessed Christ, are already Lord, where there is nothing to fear for I rest in a love I cannot comprehend.
I want to live in this world, daily, constantly, always, for this alone is life. All else is stumbling in the fog of fear and the confusion of illusion where I fail to know that life is being in the love you are. I live in exile too many days, feeling my way through a self-created grayness outside the circle of your light. I try to find a way to fill my emptiness when all I need is to see you standing there, not answering your own question.
Seeing you, Jesus, a love not my own fills me, teaching me again what I thought I knew. My life lies not in my unsteady accomplishments or the lack of them but in knowing you as the face of Loving Mystery.
Life, real life consists in daily, tiny episodes of knowing you at the heart of my heart, loving and being loved. In those moments, there is no confusion. I know what life is. Thank you.
Pr. David L. Miller
Luke 12:13-15
Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But he said to him, “Friend, who set me to be a judge and arbitrator over you?” And he said to them, “Take care! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.
Prayer
In what does our life consist, dear Friend? You do not answer the question you beg, Jesus. You stand there, and the message is clear enough. Our life consists in you, in loving you but first in knowing you as the love of the Father’s heart made clear and mine.
You are my life. Apart from you I do not live, for I do not dwell that land of dreams where I know love eternal and uncreated filling and surrounding me, engulfing all that is in a wash of divine mercy. I do not dwell in a world where you, blessed Christ, are already Lord, where there is nothing to fear for I rest in a love I cannot comprehend.
I want to live in this world, daily, constantly, always, for this alone is life. All else is stumbling in the fog of fear and the confusion of illusion where I fail to know that life is being in the love you are. I live in exile too many days, feeling my way through a self-created grayness outside the circle of your light. I try to find a way to fill my emptiness when all I need is to see you standing there, not answering your own question.
Seeing you, Jesus, a love not my own fills me, teaching me again what I thought I knew. My life lies not in my unsteady accomplishments or the lack of them but in knowing you as the face of Loving Mystery.
Life, real life consists in daily, tiny episodes of knowing you at the heart of my heart, loving and being loved. In those moments, there is no confusion. I know what life is. Thank you.
Pr. David L. Miller
Friday, August 03, 2007
Friday, August 3, 2007
Today’s text
Luke 11:11-13
Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you the, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!
Prayer
I have no trouble giving to my children, Gracious One, or my grandchildren. It brings me pleasure, although they do wear me out.
Is that the point? Do you take pleasure in giving gifts to those who call upon you from their heart, and even when they don’t call upon you? For I sometimes give to my beloved before a request can be made. And how much more generous is your heart than mine?
I feel the warmth of your smile in these words, Holy One. Eager, you are, to give abundance of life to body and soul. For you give the Holy Spirit, who is that rippling rush of self-giving love that streams through your inner life, making green and vibrant all it touches.
It touches us, and you smile. The Spirit’s breeze embraces our flesh, cooling our fevers and filling us heart and lung with the life you live, the love you give, the hope you fan and the desire you are. That desire springs to life in every nation as you take pleasure in giving your Spirit, moving your children to heights and depths of love they thought far beyond them.
So give your Hoy Spirit, Dearest Lord, especially where sorrow and fear hang thick, for we need a love far beyond our own to complete our healing … and your joy. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Luke 11:11-13
Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you the, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!
Prayer
I have no trouble giving to my children, Gracious One, or my grandchildren. It brings me pleasure, although they do wear me out.
Is that the point? Do you take pleasure in giving gifts to those who call upon you from their heart, and even when they don’t call upon you? For I sometimes give to my beloved before a request can be made. And how much more generous is your heart than mine?
I feel the warmth of your smile in these words, Holy One. Eager, you are, to give abundance of life to body and soul. For you give the Holy Spirit, who is that rippling rush of self-giving love that streams through your inner life, making green and vibrant all it touches.
It touches us, and you smile. The Spirit’s breeze embraces our flesh, cooling our fevers and filling us heart and lung with the life you live, the love you give, the hope you fan and the desire you are. That desire springs to life in every nation as you take pleasure in giving your Spirit, moving your children to heights and depths of love they thought far beyond them.
So give your Hoy Spirit, Dearest Lord, especially where sorrow and fear hang thick, for we need a love far beyond our own to complete our healing … and your joy. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Thursday, August 02, 2007
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Today’s text
Luke 11:9-10
So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks the door will be opened.
Prayer
I am acutely aware, dearest Friend, that thousands are asking, searching and knocking as I struggle to write to you through this tired mind. They are far more weary than I, for they pray and hope for their beloved, whom they fear have perished in the swirling waters of a great river.
Dozens, certainly, search that murky water amid the twisted steel of a broken bridge in a city well known to me, and to you surely. They will do work no one else wants to do to bring people the worst news they will likely ever hear. They will find the bodies of beloved souls who went to work, to school, to the city, never imagining they would never again arrive home.
Bless the searchers, Blessed One, and those who wait with their hearts in their throats. Seek and find their hearts, knock until they open, ask that they might receive the consolation of your unceasing love, which is the only good and gracious news on days like this, and every day is like this for someone, dearest One.
For as much as we ask and seek and knock, you do so much more, hunting us down in our lonely places and seeking to love us into life. Let us never forget that our asking and seeking is but the resonance of your own search for us. So welcome our asking and searching, even as you welcome the souls of your beloved into unimaginable eternity. Amen
Pr. David L. Miller
Luke 11:9-10
So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks the door will be opened.
Prayer
I am acutely aware, dearest Friend, that thousands are asking, searching and knocking as I struggle to write to you through this tired mind. They are far more weary than I, for they pray and hope for their beloved, whom they fear have perished in the swirling waters of a great river.
Dozens, certainly, search that murky water amid the twisted steel of a broken bridge in a city well known to me, and to you surely. They will do work no one else wants to do to bring people the worst news they will likely ever hear. They will find the bodies of beloved souls who went to work, to school, to the city, never imagining they would never again arrive home.
Bless the searchers, Blessed One, and those who wait with their hearts in their throats. Seek and find their hearts, knock until they open, ask that they might receive the consolation of your unceasing love, which is the only good and gracious news on days like this, and every day is like this for someone, dearest One.
For as much as we ask and seek and knock, you do so much more, hunting us down in our lonely places and seeking to love us into life. Let us never forget that our asking and seeking is but the resonance of your own search for us. So welcome our asking and searching, even as you welcome the souls of your beloved into unimaginable eternity. Amen
Pr. David L. Miller
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Today’s text
Luke 11:5-8
And [Jesus] said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.” And he answers from within, “Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.’
Prayer
A sly humor rises from your face when I watch you, Jesus. You smile at the absurdity of your own words, comparing the infinite generosity of the divine heart with a sleepy householder too tired to get out of bed. Your humor is born of a knowledge I cannot have, or at least only in minute part.
You know, full and well, the length and breadth of divine generosity, dear Friend. It is woven into the fabric of your being. It is your heartbeat, your truth, your identity and vocation. You are this generosity incarnate, alive and breathing, the kindest of all hospitalities, eager to open the door and welcome the likes of me into the eternal embrace of an incomparable love.
You smile, Jesus, at the incongruity of your words. You know: the heart of God is as unlike the resistant friend as day is from night, as distant as your largesse from my narrow heart. Your irony tells me what I most need to know: the Holy One is eager to share the bounty of that eternal life and love of whom you are the face.
So let me live this day in full awareness that I am the object of your unimaginable generosity. Pour your inexhaustible life into the leaky vessel of my heart that your joy and mine might be complete. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Luke 11:5-8
And [Jesus] said to them, ‘Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.” And he answers from within, “Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs.’
Prayer
A sly humor rises from your face when I watch you, Jesus. You smile at the absurdity of your own words, comparing the infinite generosity of the divine heart with a sleepy householder too tired to get out of bed. Your humor is born of a knowledge I cannot have, or at least only in minute part.
You know, full and well, the length and breadth of divine generosity, dear Friend. It is woven into the fabric of your being. It is your heartbeat, your truth, your identity and vocation. You are this generosity incarnate, alive and breathing, the kindest of all hospitalities, eager to open the door and welcome the likes of me into the eternal embrace of an incomparable love.
You smile, Jesus, at the incongruity of your words. You know: the heart of God is as unlike the resistant friend as day is from night, as distant as your largesse from my narrow heart. Your irony tells me what I most need to know: the Holy One is eager to share the bounty of that eternal life and love of whom you are the face.
So let me live this day in full awareness that I am the object of your unimaginable generosity. Pour your inexhaustible life into the leaky vessel of my heart that your joy and mine might be complete. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Today’s text
Luke 11:1-4
“[Jesus] was praying in a certain place and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.”
Prayer
Words so simple, they take but a moment to say. And you are eager for us to pray them, blessed Friend. But why?
What can it mean for us to hallow your name, you who are Love Illimitable unbound by time and space? Of what is mortal flesh capable that will make or keep your name holy when you are so far beyond human reach and imagination that every word we speak of you is false, a lie? Astounded silence would seem the only posture capable of honoring you.
Yet, you invite us to speak, blessed Jesus, addressing the Unimaginable, asking that the divine will be done, that you will provide our needs and forgive us the violations of our humanity and that of others, to say nothing of our blatant disregard of that glory you share with the Father.
Who are we that we should do this? It does not matter. What matters is that it is you who invites us to do so, welcoming us into that relationship in which we may find, finally, our truest humanity, hidden where it has always been: in the mystery of the love of God. Our life, free and full, is unlocked only by knowing that love inexpressible you pour out from the Father’s heart.
So you invite us to pray, to speak simply our need and hope, knowing all that we are is received by a warmth and welcome who, for eternity, has longed for our presence.
Beyond the words of the simple prayer you teach, blessed Jesus, may I hear the invitation into the eternally unfolding mystery of your love. For this is greatest mystery of all, not that you are love, but that I, with stumbling words and uncomprehending heart, may enter what cannot be spoken. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Luke 11:1-4
“[Jesus] was praying in a certain place and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.”
Prayer
Words so simple, they take but a moment to say. And you are eager for us to pray them, blessed Friend. But why?
What can it mean for us to hallow your name, you who are Love Illimitable unbound by time and space? Of what is mortal flesh capable that will make or keep your name holy when you are so far beyond human reach and imagination that every word we speak of you is false, a lie? Astounded silence would seem the only posture capable of honoring you.
Yet, you invite us to speak, blessed Jesus, addressing the Unimaginable, asking that the divine will be done, that you will provide our needs and forgive us the violations of our humanity and that of others, to say nothing of our blatant disregard of that glory you share with the Father.
Who are we that we should do this? It does not matter. What matters is that it is you who invites us to do so, welcoming us into that relationship in which we may find, finally, our truest humanity, hidden where it has always been: in the mystery of the love of God. Our life, free and full, is unlocked only by knowing that love inexpressible you pour out from the Father’s heart.
So you invite us to pray, to speak simply our need and hope, knowing all that we are is received by a warmth and welcome who, for eternity, has longed for our presence.
Beyond the words of the simple prayer you teach, blessed Jesus, may I hear the invitation into the eternally unfolding mystery of your love. For this is greatest mystery of all, not that you are love, but that I, with stumbling words and uncomprehending heart, may enter what cannot be spoken. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, July 30, 2007
Monday, July 30, 2007
(Note: For the next several months Praying the Mystery will focus on the Gospel readings from the Revised Common Lectionary, each day taking up a few verses from the reading appointed for the previous Sunday.)
Today’s text
Luke 11:1-2
“[Jesus] was praying in a certain place and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name.”
Prayer
I feel your desire blessed Friend. Your friends come with a request. And your desire tells me there is no appeal nearer to your divine heart, which leaps at their words, “teach us to pray.”
But it is not human hearts but yours that captures my mind moves me to love you, Jesus. I watch you. I see your face. I feel the joy that warms you. I experience your fullness of heart as you turn to share the mystery of divine relationship with souls who do not yet know they have fallen into a well as deep as eternity and as warm as life, where untold suffering and unimaginable love awaits them.
In the flash of this moment, I know you. I know you want to teach them to pray. You want them to enter the mystery the Loving Mystery, the divine I AM, of whom you are the blessed face. You want them to share exquisite intimacy with the Father, in whom you constantly dwell, sharing undiluted unity of heart so that your every word and act is transparent to that Love.
You want them to know this loving unity, which is the heart of your joy and the fountain of your desire that they--that I--should taste the Eternal One who is Love Inexpressible. I know you in this desire. I know a love that will not let me go. Your desire tells me all I need to know to love and trust you, and the One you call Father.
Let me trust your loving desire for me and all you love that I may live with peace and assurance, listening for any the least word of instruction or encouragement you may speak. However small or insignificant, they spring from your desire to bless me with more than I can ask. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Today’s text
Luke 11:1-2
“[Jesus] was praying in a certain place and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name.”
Prayer
I feel your desire blessed Friend. Your friends come with a request. And your desire tells me there is no appeal nearer to your divine heart, which leaps at their words, “teach us to pray.”
But it is not human hearts but yours that captures my mind moves me to love you, Jesus. I watch you. I see your face. I feel the joy that warms you. I experience your fullness of heart as you turn to share the mystery of divine relationship with souls who do not yet know they have fallen into a well as deep as eternity and as warm as life, where untold suffering and unimaginable love awaits them.
In the flash of this moment, I know you. I know you want to teach them to pray. You want them to enter the mystery the Loving Mystery, the divine I AM, of whom you are the blessed face. You want them to share exquisite intimacy with the Father, in whom you constantly dwell, sharing undiluted unity of heart so that your every word and act is transparent to that Love.
You want them to know this loving unity, which is the heart of your joy and the fountain of your desire that they--that I--should taste the Eternal One who is Love Inexpressible. I know you in this desire. I know a love that will not let me go. Your desire tells me all I need to know to love and trust you, and the One you call Father.
Let me trust your loving desire for me and all you love that I may live with peace and assurance, listening for any the least word of instruction or encouragement you may speak. However small or insignificant, they spring from your desire to bless me with more than I can ask. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Friday, July 27, 2007
Friday, July 27, 2007
Today’s text
3 John 1:15
“Peace to you. The friends send you their greetings. Greet the friends there, each by name.”
Prayer
We are to each other what you are to us, friend. Captured in the encompassing embrace of your all-possessing love, we are yours, sharing in your eternal triune joy, basking in the delight that is your good pleasure to shower upon your beloved, upon me.
You are dearest and truest Friend, revealing and pouring out your love in our brother Jesus. You show us your joy, your divine hunger that we should know you full, the length and breadth, height and depth of all you are, and you are love, top to bottom, now and tomorrow, uncreated and unceasing, unimaginable wonder.
Your friendship joins us with all you embrace in your impossible immensity. Joined, we are, with those we know well or not all, those sitting beside us or a world away in places we shall never see, those dear and those we prefer to avoid.
You join us in your holy friendship where we taste and enjoy you in every shared smile or burden, every common kindness, every knowing glace, in common work and hope. All of it a sacrament of holy friendship in which we know, finally, the Loving Mystery we have always wanted. You.
So let us greet and care for each other, whether near or far, sharing in your divine friendship, knowing you in the sacrament of common words, work and life, speaking that truth you hunger for us to share, “Peace.” Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
3 John 1:15
“Peace to you. The friends send you their greetings. Greet the friends there, each by name.”
Prayer
We are to each other what you are to us, friend. Captured in the encompassing embrace of your all-possessing love, we are yours, sharing in your eternal triune joy, basking in the delight that is your good pleasure to shower upon your beloved, upon me.
You are dearest and truest Friend, revealing and pouring out your love in our brother Jesus. You show us your joy, your divine hunger that we should know you full, the length and breadth, height and depth of all you are, and you are love, top to bottom, now and tomorrow, uncreated and unceasing, unimaginable wonder.
Your friendship joins us with all you embrace in your impossible immensity. Joined, we are, with those we know well or not all, those sitting beside us or a world away in places we shall never see, those dear and those we prefer to avoid.
You join us in your holy friendship where we taste and enjoy you in every shared smile or burden, every common kindness, every knowing glace, in common work and hope. All of it a sacrament of holy friendship in which we know, finally, the Loving Mystery we have always wanted. You.
So let us greet and care for each other, whether near or far, sharing in your divine friendship, knowing you in the sacrament of common words, work and life, speaking that truth you hunger for us to share, “Peace.” Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Today’s text
3 John 1:14-15
“I hope to see you again soon, and we will talk face to face. Peace to you. The friends send you their greetings. Greet the friends there, each by name.”
Prayer
We say to each other what you say and are to us, “Peace.” You, Loving Mystery, are the most gracious of hospitalities. You force no one to love or acknowledge you but offer unceasing welcome into your blessed nearness. Through your flesh, the body of our brother Jesus, you never tire of inviting us to abide, rest and find home in you.
Peace is your word to us, spoken by our resurrected Christ to frightened souls hiding behind closed doors lest they, too, meet their end in the executioner’s art. Since that moment, you continuously speak this most welcome word through all eternity
‘Peace, I am your home, your place of arrival amid arid wanderings where you find no water. Come, quench your thirst.
‘Peace, I am the place of eternal welcome where your restless wanderings may cease.
‘Peace, I am the home you have always wanted, the smile you seek in every face, the laughter that does not end, the answer to the nagging question your confused heart does not know how to ask.
‘I am your peace; there is no other.’
And there is no other who can speak the promise of peace that death cannot still and life cannot kill.
Blessed are you, Holy One, for you are our peace. May your peace be our first word to each other as meet face to face. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
3 John 1:14-15
“I hope to see you again soon, and we will talk face to face. Peace to you. The friends send you their greetings. Greet the friends there, each by name.”
Prayer
We say to each other what you say and are to us, “Peace.” You, Loving Mystery, are the most gracious of hospitalities. You force no one to love or acknowledge you but offer unceasing welcome into your blessed nearness. Through your flesh, the body of our brother Jesus, you never tire of inviting us to abide, rest and find home in you.
Peace is your word to us, spoken by our resurrected Christ to frightened souls hiding behind closed doors lest they, too, meet their end in the executioner’s art. Since that moment, you continuously speak this most welcome word through all eternity
‘Peace, I am your home, your place of arrival amid arid wanderings where you find no water. Come, quench your thirst.
‘Peace, I am the place of eternal welcome where your restless wanderings may cease.
‘Peace, I am the home you have always wanted, the smile you seek in every face, the laughter that does not end, the answer to the nagging question your confused heart does not know how to ask.
‘I am your peace; there is no other.’
And there is no other who can speak the promise of peace that death cannot still and life cannot kill.
Blessed are you, Holy One, for you are our peace. May your peace be our first word to each other as meet face to face. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Today’s text
3 John 1:13-14
“I have much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink; instead I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.”
Prayer
Safe within my cell, I write these words to you, Great Mystery. Playful music dances in thin air, a wordless prayer for you to come into this space to make words appear in my emptiness, words that will wing me into your nearness.
I like it here, alone, away from the feverishness of the day. All that matters is listening and being true to what you give, or at least to what I perceive you want me to share. There are days I never want to leave this space. It is holy and quiet, and the music bears me into you where I taste again that which I love best.
But there is work to do, faces to meet, books to read, documents to craft, consolation to share with souls needier than mine. And you made me for this work. So I go, however reluctantly, from this quiet place into that tiny corner of creation on which you would have me pour the oil of care and gladness that souls might be healed.
I wish I were as eager to move from solitude into daily encounters as are those who serve you better than I can. But that it is not how you made me. Yet I pray, Loving One, let me bear the love I know here into my every encounter with your saints, your world. Move me again from blessed solitude to reveal to each face just how beloved they are to you.
Let me speak face to face that love I savor in this silence that I might be true to the words that appear in my emptiness. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
3 John 1:13-14
“I have much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink; instead I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.”
Prayer
Safe within my cell, I write these words to you, Great Mystery. Playful music dances in thin air, a wordless prayer for you to come into this space to make words appear in my emptiness, words that will wing me into your nearness.
I like it here, alone, away from the feverishness of the day. All that matters is listening and being true to what you give, or at least to what I perceive you want me to share. There are days I never want to leave this space. It is holy and quiet, and the music bears me into you where I taste again that which I love best.
But there is work to do, faces to meet, books to read, documents to craft, consolation to share with souls needier than mine. And you made me for this work. So I go, however reluctantly, from this quiet place into that tiny corner of creation on which you would have me pour the oil of care and gladness that souls might be healed.
I wish I were as eager to move from solitude into daily encounters as are those who serve you better than I can. But that it is not how you made me. Yet I pray, Loving One, let me bear the love I know here into my every encounter with your saints, your world. Move me again from blessed solitude to reveal to each face just how beloved they are to you.
Let me speak face to face that love I savor in this silence that I might be true to the words that appear in my emptiness. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
Monday, July 23, 2007
Monday, July 23, 2007
Today’s text
3 John 1:13-14
“I have much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink; instead I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.”
Prayer
Arrivals and departures mark our days, Eternal One. Beloved friends and family move far to fresh places and chapters. Others come into our days, or they return from time away. We hope to know them still, and that they will know us, too, in the comfortable ways we once shared.
Every coming and going emblazons a bittersweet truth in my soul, as If I had to learn it anew. Nothing is forever. I know it all too well; must life or you keep reminding me, Ancient One?
The goodness I now know, the faces and laughter, the gentle moments with beloved will not endure. Nor will I. And my efforts to share the depth of my heart with those you have given me fail miserably and often. Face to face, I would speak the love I have known in them and the love in which I treasure each one, words too often unspoken or poorly so.
Help me, dearest One, to speak the love and wisdom you have given me to share, that the life I share with others may be life indeed, rich in the incarnation of your divine heart. May needed words be spoken that your joy and ours may be complete.
And remind me, too, that even my missed and failed opportunities are not lost in your eternity. You redeem every moment, joining each one with the dancing love of your life that even our bitterness might be kissed with your joy. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
3 John 1:13-14
“I have much to write to you, but I would rather not write with pen and ink; instead I hope to see you soon, and we will talk face to face.”
Prayer
Arrivals and departures mark our days, Eternal One. Beloved friends and family move far to fresh places and chapters. Others come into our days, or they return from time away. We hope to know them still, and that they will know us, too, in the comfortable ways we once shared.
Every coming and going emblazons a bittersweet truth in my soul, as If I had to learn it anew. Nothing is forever. I know it all too well; must life or you keep reminding me, Ancient One?
The goodness I now know, the faces and laughter, the gentle moments with beloved will not endure. Nor will I. And my efforts to share the depth of my heart with those you have given me fail miserably and often. Face to face, I would speak the love I have known in them and the love in which I treasure each one, words too often unspoken or poorly so.
Help me, dearest One, to speak the love and wisdom you have given me to share, that the life I share with others may be life indeed, rich in the incarnation of your divine heart. May needed words be spoken that your joy and ours may be complete.
And remind me, too, that even my missed and failed opportunities are not lost in your eternity. You redeem every moment, joining each one with the dancing love of your life that even our bitterness might be kissed with your joy. Amen.
Pr. David L. Miller
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