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
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