Thursday, June 19, 2008

Today’s text

Matthew 10:32-36

'So if anyone declares himself for me in the presence of human beings, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my Father in heaven. But the one who disowns me in the presence of human beings, I will disown in the presence of my Father in heaven. 'Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth: it is not peace I have come to bring, but a sword. For I have come to set son against father, daughter against mother, daughter-in-law against mother-in-law ... .

Prayer

It has taken me most of a lifetime to be able to declare my love for you in unwelcoming or uncertain contexts. But I have come to know that denying you, Jesus, is denying myself, heart and soul, leaving nothing but an empty shell behind.

I should be grateful for that, and I am. It tells me you are a bigger part of me than 10 years ago or 20 … or … . This is great consolation, for I know what love as lies in the corners of this soul is you, the one I want to know before, above and in all things.

But it is also fearful because I know it remains possible for me to deny you. Troubled places in me remain unconverted from their devout fears. I could yet taste the dusty shell of a self that has lost you. It makes me shudder.

So, too, your words about family. My family has been such grace to me, Jesus, holy and blessed sacrament. I would not be sitting here praising to you were it not for them. I doubt I would be alive, tasting the sweet freshness of this new day. They were your saving arms and hands, your heart and eyes. And I thank you.

How could I turn against them? Yet, my love of you has made me odd, peculiar in some of their eyes. But I no longer mind so much, even as you still manage to love them through me.

I pray never to lose them and that they not be lost to your Spirit. But let nothing, not even these, come between us. I wish never to be alien to you, my Lord, my Life.

Pr. David L. Miller

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Today’s text

Matthew 10:26-31

'So do not be afraid of them. Everything now covered up will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the daylight; what you hear in whispers, proclaim from the housetops. 'Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; fear him rather who can destroy both body and soul in hell. Can you not buy two sparrows for a penny? And yet not one falls to the ground without your Father knowing. Why, every hair on your head has been counted. So there is no need to be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

Prayer

I think I fear me most, Jesus. I can kill my soul right here and now. And sometimes do.

I ignore your prompting. I neglect the things that I know my soul needs to live, the places and practices that dispose my heart to your nearness. I get lost in the noise of living and lose the still voice of silence in which I know you.

I fear me because I so often am confused, unsure what I need for this soul to live, to thrive, to remain supple and free. I confuse temporary moods with deep abiding truths and fail to walk in the ways that are life.

You know me. I make no attempt to hide. It would be futile anyway. I have come to believe that you do, indeed, know every hair on my graying head.

But I do not fear your knowledge of me. It’s the best news I know because what I know of you trumps everything you know of me. In your love I am of immense worth, and so I proclaim what I know: You are love, the love that holds all and will be all in all.

What more can I need?

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Today’s text

Matthew 10:24-25

[Jesus said:] Disciple is not superior to teacher, nor slave to master. It is enough for disciple to grow to be like teacher, and slave like master. If they have called the master of the house "Beelzebul", how much more the members of his household?

Prayer

Your words are less about your goodness, Jesus, than about your persecution. You revealed the beauty of the kingdom, yet many rejected and denounced you.

We can never hope to shine so clearly as you, transparent to the Eternal Mystery of God. We look at you and savor what we see, a love that shines on just and unjust alike, assuring us that, yes, there is plenty here for us, too.

I pray to be a window on the grace that holds me, shining with the light that fills you. And this you promise.

But you also promise, or shall I say ‘warn of,’ something far tougher to take. As you were rejected so shall we be. You send us on a journey of revelation in which we reveal the goodness of your face in acts of mercy and healing, in meekness and forgiveness, in prayer for enemies and making peace with our accusers, in accepted suffering and the joy of casting every care on you.

But our journey of witness reveals you also to our own souls as we come to know your sufficiency amid our insufficiency, our lack, our wants, our fears.

You are there and ever will be, especially when we know the rejections than came also to you.

Pr. David L. Miller

Friday, June 13, 2008

Today’s text

Matthew 10:1-8

He summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits with power to drive them out and to cure all kinds of disease and all kinds of illness. These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon who is known as Peter, and his brother Andrew; James the son of Zebedee, and his brother John; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas, and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus; Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who was also his betrayer. These twelve Jesus sent out, instructing them as follows: 'Do not make your way to gentile territory, and do not enter any Samaritan town; go instead to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. And as you go, proclaim that the kingdom of Heaven is close at hand. Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those suffering from virulent skin-diseases, drive out devils. You received without charge, give without charge.'

Prayer

Who are we Jesus? We have gathered around you now for the past two millennia. We call upon you in diverse languages and try to discern your way amid the maw of cultures that are at far odds with you.

As often as not, we lose our way. Our times, places and societies exercise far greater power over our identities than do you. Yet, there remains in me a desire to be shaped by you, to live a life that expresses you, a life in which you might recognize a soul that belongs to you.

But I cannot do that alone. It has taken me nearly all of five decades to know this. I need a community that believes the kingdom of heaven is, indeed, near, and hence can give of heart and soul without charge. I need a community that knows and is your compassion, a community where my faults can find forgiveness and a wandering soul can find welcome.

I need those who know your mission to cure and cleanse and raise the dead. (And who are more dead than they who imagine they can truly live without you and the nearness of your rule?).

I want more and more to find myself among this people of hope you create, a people defined by your mission, a people who crave your nearness and who hunger and thirst for the mercy that is your face on our earth.

For this is who we are, why we gather and why our hope is you, alone.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Today’s text

Matthew 9:35-10:1

Jesus made a tour through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing all kinds of disease and all kinds of illness. And when he saw the crowds he felt sorry for them because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is rich but the laborers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers to his harvest.' He summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits with power to drive them out and to cure all kinds of disease and all kinds of illness.

Prayer

We are modern people, Jesus. Our first move, always, is to distance ourselves from such outlandishness. We don’t believe the church has power over demons (whatever they are) or authority to cure the bodies of the broken. This is hardly our task or power. For us, that authority belongs to the medical community.

Our first move upon hearing that someone has been healed after prayer is to explain it away. We abolish the mystery by assuring ourselves it was the result of rational processes human minds can understand and chart.

In the process, we remove any promise or claim your actions might have on us. The sending of your followers becomes just an old story about someone else, long ago and far away.

Still, I wonder: What happens when people believe they have received power from you to free and heal? What happens when we imagine that we are sent with a story that is true, a love that is real? What happens when our hearts are convinced of your conviction to birth a new community fashioned by a compassion that shines on just and unjust alike, not by our ideas of justice?

I wonder if we would then know a power to speak and act and love that does, indeed, heal and set free. We then could heal and release souls from the bondages that reduce us to so much less than your desire for us.

Convince our hearts, Jesus, and send us to a world with a word that is true.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, June 9, 2008

Today’s text

Matthew 9:35-37

Jesus made a tour through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing all kinds of disease and all kinds of illness. And when he saw the crowds he felt sorry for them because they were harassed and dejected, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, 'The harvest is rich but the laborers are few, so ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers to his harvest.'

Prayer

I have seen the harvest, Jesus. Many times. I have climbed the side of grain boxes heaped with wheat and corn. I have dug my hands deep into the grain and pulled them out, kernels running between my fingers. Then I’d do it again for the soul satisfaction of touching earth’s goodness.

In early summer, I’ve stacked bales of fresh hay on the wagon as the rhythmic hump of the baler pushed them from its bowels. We went back and forth across the field under a scorching sky, careful to bale up all the wind rows lest any be lost. Cows get hungry when the grass lies dead and buried under mid-winter snows.

So I’d pound my hands on the bales of sweet alfalfa and clover, stack them high and smile with pleasure at the honey scent in my senses and the joy of being about the business of life.

So I wonder, Jesus, what did you see and sense as you looked at the harvest, the wheat not yet cut, grain still standing in the fields?

I have an inkling. It’s not unique. It’s the same sighing as any human soul who has ever put seed into the ground: “Don’t let it be lost. Let it not be wasted. Let it come to life and grow and yield its fullness. And let me taste and know the goodness of what has been planted.”

It’s a farmer’s prayer, I suppose. I come by it naturally. After all these years of city streets, it remains indelible in my soul. And it tells me my purpose and yours. Your heart is moved by the sweet scent of the harvest. So may we labor with joy to gather the rich yield of human souls, ours and all you love lest any be lost.

Pr. David L. Miller

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Today’s text

Psalm 31:19-24

Yahweh, what quantities of good things you have in store for those who fear you, and bestow on those who make you their refuge, for all humanity to see. Safe in your presence you hide them, far from human plotting, shielding them in your tent, far from contentious tongues. Blessed be Yahweh who works for me miracles of his faithful love (in a fortified city)! In a state of terror I cried,--I have been cut off from your sight!--Yet you heard my plea for help when I cried out to you. Love Yahweh, all his faithful: Yahweh protects his loyal servants, but he repays the arrogant with interest. Be brave, take heart, all who put your hope in Yahweh.

Prayer

You hide us, O Lord. Tucked inside your immensity, wrapped in mother’s arms, hidden in the bosom of eternity, you hold us fast and safe.

But so seldom do we believe it. And less seldom do we walk into the new day convinced utterly of the safety of our souls, the enormity of your embrace, the fierceness of your faithfulness. But today, I do. And today, I will.

Security abides this heart. Not the security of hiding away from the day, but the calm of assurance. I have no assurance that what I want or think I need will come to me. It may not, which likely is just as well. I surrendered the idea that I know what’s best years ago.

Nor have I any particular confidence that I possess sufficient strength, will and insight to thrive at the tasks to which I lay my hand. I am well acquainted with how weak and needy I can be, to say nothing of how distractible. And I no longer feel much shame about it. For the most part, I have given up trying to hide or deny it.

I am what I am. Yours.

Of this I am certain.

And you are unimaginable immensity, wrapping me body and soul in innumerable layers of love’s unfailing embrace.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, June 2, 2008

Today’s text

Psalm 31:1-5

In you, Yahweh, I have taken refuge, let me never be put to shame, in your saving justice deliver me, rescue me, turn your ear to me, make haste. Be for me a rock--fastness, a fortified citadel to save me. You are my rock, my rampart; true to your name, lead me and guide me! Draw me out of the net they have spread for me, for you are my refuge; to your hands I commit my spirit, by you have I been redeemed. God of truth.

Prayer

Yahweh, almighty, all motherly,
our rest and rock,
our refuge and rescue
our home and joy,
our light and life.

You are our clothing,
love enfolding, all possessing,
love surrounding all we are.
You embrace and grace
all life; you are all
good and the good
of all that is
is you.

Through love you made us,
in love preserve us. From
deepest eternity you know
and hold us. Grant our hearts
true knowledge of you.

Save us amid all
uncertainty that certainty
may abide each heart
that all is well,
all shall be well,
and all manner of things will
be well, for all rests
in you,
whose love never wanes
and never will.

Pr. David L. Miller

Friday, May 30, 2008

Today’s text

Psalm 131

Yahweh, my heart is not haughty,
I do not set my sights too high.
I have taken no part in great affairs,
in wonders beyond my scope.

No, I hold myself in quiet and silence,
like a little child in its mother’s arms,
like a little child, so I keep myself.

Let Israel hope in Yahweh
henceforth and for ever.

Prayer

For you my heart longs
in the morning. Calm
I seek, to stable restless
mind, its anxious
doubts caressing,
uncertain that the day--
and I--are sufficient
to the day’s demands.

Be certain, my soul;
insufficient you are,
certainly so, hold no
doubt, but know:
it matters not;
go quiet, undaunted
lay hand to task; hope
attends, love abides;
joy is not absence
of challenge, not
abolition of tension
but holy knowing: Yahweh
keeps you, holds your
life, your moments.
In Yahweh rests all
calm, comes your strength.

Pr. David L. Miller

Thursday, May 29, 2008

Today’s text

Psalm 131

Yahweh, my heart is not haughty,
I do not set my sights too high.
I have taken no part in great affairs,
in wonders beyond my scope.

No, I hold myself in quiet and silence,
like a little child in its mother’s arms,
like a little child, so I keep myself.

Let Israel hope in Yahweh
henceforth and for ever.

Prayer

Quiet, I rest,
silent, at home,
in arms of love,
enrapt, needing not,
to speak;
words spell not
what cannot be
spelled or
said or known,
only inhabited,
at rest in arms of
love unspeakable.

Be silent, my soul,
hold still in Thou
who cannot
be held, who
holds all in
mothers’ hands.
Your smallness, O
soul, is your peace,
your place, your
help, your hope,
your might, your
sight, the
wisdom of calm.

Pr. David L. Miller

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Today’s text

Psalm 131

Yahweh, my heart is not haughty,
I do not set my sights too high.
I have taken no part in great affairs,
in wonders beyond my scope.

No, I hold myself in quiet and silence,
like a little child in its mother’s arms,
like a little child, so I keep myself.

Let Israel hope in Yahweh
henceforth and for ever.

Prayer

You are my place, Holy One;
knowing you, I know
myself, and surrender my
grasping for that which you
have not intended
for me.

But when I praise you,
when your greatness
envelops my soul,
I am complete, with
nothing to prove, and
needing nothing
but you.

I go to my tasks, my
heart calm, my
soul assured, my
mind clear, my
focus pure, my
hands given to
the work you give,
my true worship.

You are my place, Holy One;
in you I know myself,
my freedom.

Pr. David L. Miller

Thursday, May 22, 2008

Today’s text

Psalm 8:1-5

Yahweh our Lord,how majestic is your name throughout the world!
Whoever keeps singing of your majesty higher than the heavens,even through the mouths of children, or of babes in arms,you make him a fortress, firm against your foes,to subdue the enemy and the rebel.I look up at your heavens, shaped by your fingers,at the moon and the stars you set firm -what are human beings that you spare a thought for them,or the child of Adam that you care for him?
Yet you have made him little less than a god,you have crowned him with glory and beauty ….'

Prayer

Joy is our strength,
the joy of praising you,
Yahweh, of waking to
morning’s light, knowing
the breath of life in my lungs is
your first gift to me,
breath whose first purpose
is to praise you, Maker of life,
Craftsman of air.

For you employ your power
to craft creation, clearing a
broad and open space
that life--and me--
may be, that being and joy may
pour into the great emptiness where
nothingness ruled, where crimson
sunsets did not spread the sky, speaking
with ancient voice that life is
your purpose,
your way,
your call,
your all.

Your way fills me with
each daybreak breath, and
praise arises from that
depth of heart that hears
the word
the silent air cries:
I am life and the life
in you is me.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, May 19, 2008

Today’s text

Psalm 8:1-5

Yahweh our Lord,how majestic is your name throughout the world!

Whoever keeps singing of your majesty higher than the heavens,even through the mouths of children, or of babes in arms,you make him a fortress, firm against your foes, to subdue the enemy and the rebel.

I look up at your heavens, shaped by your fingers,at the moon and the stars you set firm -what are human beings that you spare a thought for them, or the child of Adam that you care for him?

Yet you have made him little less than a god, you have crowned him with glory and beauty ….'

Prayer

What are we that you should think of us?
What in our tiny lives draws you?

Wrong question. The right one:
Who are you, Loving Mystery,
that you attend to us?
What is it about you
that you care?

I am amazed and moved that you,
Holy Secret, should know me, and more
that you love me. You
whose hands imprison the stars,
whose heart is warm as life,
whose reach stretches beyond the galaxies,
who is as unknowable to me as I
am to the intricate orange ladybug
that flies from my finger to the music
of Ben’s little boy giggles.

Just so, you delight in me, and
for that moment, I get it. I
become the love you are,
the crowning glory of being
human, sharing your beauty,
knowing you.

Pr. David L. Miller

Friday, May 16, 2008

Today’s text

Matthew 28:16-20

Meanwhile the eleven disciples set out for Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had arranged to meet them. When they saw him they fell down before him, though some hesitated. Jesus came up and spoke to them. He said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And look, I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.'

Prayer

‘Yes,’ this is your word to us.

Yes, I am with you. Yes, I always will be. Yes, in deepest sorrow. Yes, when you have lost your way, your sight, yourself. Yes, when you don’t know what to do and when there is nothing you can do.

Yes, today and tomorrow. Yes, on this corner of my good Earth and wherever your feet may take you.

Yes, to the ends of the Earth and the eternity of time.

Yes, for you are never abandoned. You are forever the unforsaken, the beloved, a cradled child. Mine. And my word to you is singular.

Yes.

My saints long before you clung to my ‘Yes’ in circumstances unimaginable, amid joys inexpressible and griefs unbearable. And I was enough for them.

I was their ‘Yes,’ and ever I shall be. For you.

Pr. David L. Miller

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Today’s text

Matthew 28:16-20

Meanwhile the eleven disciples set out for Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had arranged to meet them. When they saw him they fell down before him, though some hesitated. Jesus came up and spoke to them. He said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And look, I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.'

Prayer

‘Go,’ you say.

So we go. We go to the joyous task of naming the Love who embraces all time and space. We go with anticipation, expecting to feel your mysterious nearness which pervades this and every universe.

We go with laughter, eager to embrace each child of earth. Help us to hold them in the tenderness in which you hold us.

We go to cradle their infants and lay loving hands on their beloved dead, pouring on each the ancient waters that flow from the Eternal Spring of your divine heart.

We go to teach a way our feet have not mastered and never will. We go to speak a wisdom for which we barely have words, for what words can contain you?

We go because you send us beyond where we have been and what we know to a world you love for reasons we can’t understand.

We go in the grace of your presence, which will never leave or forsake us.

So we go.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, May 12, 2008

Today’s text

Matthew 28:16-20

Meanwhile the eleven disciples set out for Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had arranged to meet them. When they saw him they fell down before him, though some hesitated. Jesus came up and spoke to them. He said, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, make disciples of all nations; baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teach them to observe all the commands I gave you. And look, I am with you always; yes, to the end of time.'

Prayer

You spoke to them all, Jesus, those who believed and those who hesitated. Why did they hesitate to fall at your feet?

Did some doubt that it was you, crucified yet alive again? Maybe they wondered if they could believe their eyes. Perhaps, proud, they resisted such humility.

Or they were afraid. If you could come back from the dead, what might you do to those who disappointed and displeased you? And your friends did just that.

They look like the group that circles you on Sunday morning: believing and doubting, fearing and hoping, beaten down and proud, cynical yet with hungry hearts wanting.

But my eyes fix not on them but on you, Jesus. You stand there alive, receiving them all. You send no one away. There is no retribution in your soul, no anger in your bearing, no condemnation in your words.

You speak, your risen voice rising and falling, a gracious music of resurrected welcome embracing the bodies of the all-too-human. Your beloved voice envelops them as beloved and sends them forth as the never forsaken.

All of them, without distinction.

And I know: The voice that speaks with all authority embraces me in my full humanity, loving, wanting and sending me with all my unpredictable quirks and flaws, fears and faith.

All that matters is that voice that receives us all.

Pr. David L. Miller

Friday, May 9, 2008

Today’s text

John 7:37-39

On the last day, the great day of the festival, Jesus stood and cried out: 'Let anyone who is thirsty come to me! Let anyone who believes in me come and drink! Let anyone who believes in me come and drink! As scripture says, "From his heart shall flow streams of living water.” ' He was speaking of the Spirit which those who believed in him were to receive; for there was no Spirit as yet because Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Prayer

Come, Holy Spirit. Fill our hearts that we may flow with living water, fresh and free, clean and clear, cold and bracing.

We go from places we know and faces we love, unsure of what awaits in parts unknown. Except this: You.

You play. From most ancient days to unseen endings, you play. It is your way.

Once I thought you worked. But I got it wrong.

Bursting from primordial mountainsides, streams flow free, tumbling over rocks, spilling, foaming, dancing down, splashing into each low space, freshening tried earth, greening the ground.

So you are, Spirit of Life: bubbling fresh and free from primordial depths of the Eternal Generosity whose face we cannot see. You spill and splash, greening the soul, making fresh each dusty place, filling, flowing, a dancing stream of life … even in death’s own face.

And we have seen it. We know the dance in our souls. It’s in our bones and blood.

So come Holy Spirit, play, dance. Carry us wherever you choose. It doesn’t matter where.

Your dancing current is our home.

Pr. David L. Miller

Wednesday May 7, 2008

Today’s text

John 7:37-38

On the last day, the great day of the festival, Jesus stood and cried out: 'Let anyone who is thirsty come to me! Let anyone who believes in me come and drink! Let anyone who believes in me come and drink! As scripture says, "From his heart shall flow streams of living water." '

Prayer

A stream flows from my depths, Jesus. A spring bubbles there. It fills the heart and spills into my daily world. Life, peace, joy, blessing, all these well from that primordial place, that virginal point where my soul opens to yours.

From that infinitesimal aperture in the dark reaches of inaccessible soul, that which is you flows ancient and true, fresh and cold, into this life, giving life.

When I dwell in that stream, turning mind and heart to your incessant giving, I live.

So why do I not live from the depths of this bubbling heart? Anxieties and angers, conflicts and fears, old wounds and fresh hurts draw me to live the mood of the moment, detached from that life-giving stream that freshens the soul and keeps me human.

So I return and drink from that stream of grace that flows from you into this heart of mine. And you pull me into its flow. You still my soul and give all I need to live as your beloved, filled and encompassed by an eternal spring.

Pr. David L. Miller

Monday, May 5, 2008

Monday, May 5, 2008

Today’s text

John 7:37-38

On the last day, the great day of the festival, Jesus stood and cried out: 'Let anyone who is thirsty come to me! Let anyone who believes in me come and drink! Let anyone who believes in me come and drink! As scripture says, "From his heart shall flow streams of living water." '

Prayer

I see you there, Jesus. You stand in the midst of the people, crying out your heart. More: I feel you there. I sense your desire, “Let them come and drink.”

But only the thirsty, of course. And that excludes … no one. Certainly not me.

We all thirst. We are made for more, more than we know or possess, more love, more grace, more peace and purpose, more of your blessed presence.

Our thirst is the mark of having been created in your image. And I know something of your image as I watch you at the festival, crying aloud, inviting the thirsty to come, believe and drink in the secret substance of your life.

You fill our souls with all that you are, slaking our ancient thirst, satisfying our desire. And we become flowing springs of your goodness and grace, giving our lives in gentle acts of generosity.

You never cease to keep this promise, Jesus. It is your heart’s desire. So let us believe you and go our ways in peace. For we know: You will give living water to our parched souls in the heat of this and every day.

Pr. David L. Miller

Friday, May 2, 2008

Today’s text

John 17:7-11

Now at last they have recognized that all you have given me comes from you for I have given them the teaching you gave to me, and they have indeed accepted it and know for certain that I came from you, and have believed that it was you who sent me. It is for them that I pray. I am not praying for the world but for those you have given me, because they belong to you. All I have is yours and all you have is mine, and in them I am glorified. I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep those you have given me true to your name, so that they may be one like us.

Prayer

Like us … . Two small words spark joy and tears for which I am thankful. They tell me my soul is neither dead nor dull but still able to taste your goodness.

You pray, Jesus, that we be one like you and the Blessed Mystery are one, sharing all that you are so that to see the one is to know the other. And in this case, the Totally Other, the face of God.

You are glorified in us, Jesus, as we hold you fast, abiding in your love and loving to the end of our souls, the end of our abilities, the end of our days. In the loving, we taste and know the goodness of all you share with the Holy One.

It is a feast we shall know when our breath here stops--and now, in the sweetness of sharing, made sweeter by the endings which rush at us: the end of lives, the end of school, the departure of friends and treasured colleagues, the great exodus that takes our souls down the roads you appoint for us.

As we prepare to go, be glorified in us, my brother.

Be glorified in the love you pry out of your hearts to share with those with whom we have been privileged to share our lives. Be glorified in us as we leave to find fresh connections with faces far off for whom you also pray.

Be glorified that we may taste what it is to be like you, one with the Blessed Mystery whose love never departs, even when we must.

Pr. David L. Miller