The Power of Intention

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enlighten, fire of faith, Holy Spirit, intention, Joyce Rupp, love, Peace, Pentecost, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Another Saturday…perhaps a good time to take a breath, to put to rest all the troubles of the week now ending and to pray for more peaceful days in the weeks to come. We began the week with the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. We might ask ourselves how we have kept the fire of faith alive – even just during this week. How will we do so going forward? Here’s a brief prayer from Joyce Rupp to encourage us:

Flame of Love, Enkindler of Hearts, enlighten my mind to recognize where my love has grown dim. Spark renewed desire in my heart to give myself ever more completely to your service. Beam your grace through my being so I respond freely. May the fruits of your love be harvested through me. I will share them generously. Amen. (Prayer Seeds, p. 174)

This prayer reminds me that it is not always what we achieve that is important but how we go about the doing – our intention and motivation – that is key to “success.”

Ponder This

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enlighten, Ephesians, Genesis, Mark, perseverance, promise, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

With the promise of God in Genesis 8:22, that “As long as the earth lasts, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter and day and night shall not cease,” hope returned to the world. With Paul’s prayer in his letter to the Ephesians (1:17-18), “May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our hearts that we may know what is the hope to which we are called,” the promise was solidified. Through the willingness of Jesus to lay hands -not once but twice – on a blind man to assure his healing (MK 8:22-26), we can trust in God’s perseverance on our behalf.

What more can we ask as this new day dawns?

Almost There

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Christ, Emmanuel, enlighten, hope, Joseph, journey of faith, King of the Nations, Mary, O Antiphons, radiant dawn, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Although away from the internet for two days, I have been very present to the O Antiphons. My favorite (except for the last but easily twinned with it) is the fifth, translated variously as “Rising Sun,” “Morning Star” or “Dayspring.” I prefer my own rendition (which I did not invent but heard somewhere along my journey of faith). As I wait today for the light to come, signaling a new day, my heart hopes for the sun to break forth over the mountain across the river. Such a powerful symbol of returning light can awaken me to a new day as nothing else can and so is best described as “Radiant Dawn.”

O Radiant Dawn, splendor of light eternal and sun of righteousness, come and enlighten those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death.

The sixth antiphon, wherein Christ is called “King of the Nations,” breaks all the definitional laws of how the world sees a ruler. Coming as a helpless baby to a poor family, living as a carpenter’s apprentice and then an itinerant preacher and lover of all certainly topples all notions of kingship. Isaiah describes his reign as follows: He shall judge between the nations and shall arbitrate for many peoples. They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they train for war again. (IS 2:4) Is this not the king we long for? The one we know to bring us to a new “radiant dawn?”

O King of the nations, and their desire, the cornerstone making both one: Come and save the human race, which you fashioned from clay.

This is the one we call Emmanuel, God with us. I will save consideration of this Great Light until tomorrow when the birthing begins and the promise is ready to be revealed.

Tending the Fire

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dance, enlighten, flame, Joyce Rupp, love, opportunities, Pentecost, Prayer Seeds, share, spirit, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, the spiritual center

Today we will have a meeting of the Sophia Center Advisory Board. It will be our semi-annual look back on where we have been since autumn to see how we think we’ve served the purpose for which we exist. It comes at the precise moment of gearing up for our new season at home – the Spiritual Center where I live – where we offer mostly weekend events during the six months of summer into fall. It’s a fortuitous dance of “changing partners” as the year unfolds. The purpose is the same: to afford opportunities for people who come to us seeking to touch more deeply into the spirit that keeps them on the path of their highest good with companions that share the journey with them.

It seems significant to me that this transition is coinciding this year with the feast of Pentecost. As we prepare at home for a sort of new beginning this weekend, an outpouring of what is always an exciting manifestation of Spirit, I will sit this afternoon in the small band who will share what we have known in similar, if not matching, Spirit-led experiences over the past several months at the Sophia Center.

Joyce Rupp has a prayer that reminds me of the need to remain constant in the desire to serve for the good of the world – even as our small corner of it has an effect on the whole. Pray it with me if you will for renewal of heart and hope.

Flame of Love, Enkindler of Hearts, enlighten my mind to recognize where my love has grown dim. Spark renewed desire in my heart to give myself ever more completely to your service. Beam your grace through my being so I respond freely. May the fruits of your love be harvested through me. I will share them generously. Amen. (Prayer Seeds, p.174)

 

 

 

 

 

Wisdom Work

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enlighten, Pentecost, silence, Spirit of God, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, unite in purpose, Wisdom School

I leave this morning for five days in New Hampshire where our “team” will guide nine seekers toward a deeper way of seeing in their lives. We, ourselves, always benefit similarly during these ” wisdom schools” and so I ask the prayer of all who seek – wherever you are – that the Spirit of God will enlighten us during this time. This is the venue that does not afford internet access so I will ask that if you wish to visit the blog you let the Spirit guide you to the archives for a past post, click on it and see if there is a message in it for you. If not that, perhaps you might sit in silence and unite yourself to our purpose for gathering which will surely lead us all – together – closer to the One who loves us more than we can ask or imagine.
Blessings to all as we move toward Pentecost!

God Calling

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Amos, blessing, called by God, chosen, enlighten, Ephesians, eyes of our hearts, hope, Mark, Paul, prophesy, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

All of the readings for this Sunday are steeped in the message of call, or vocation. In the Old Testament Amos says, “I was no prophet…I was a shepherd and dresser of sycamores. The Lord took me from following the flock and said to me, ‘Go, prophesy to my people Israel.'” (AM 7:12-15) Paul is busy in Ephesus telling everyone that God “chose us …before the foundation of the world, to be holy and without blemish before him…” (EPH 1:3-14) In the gospel, Jesus is sending the Twelve out on mission, giving as a first instruction that they “take nothing for the journey but a walking stick – no food, no sack, no money…” (MK 6:7-13) Clearly, these were all people who knew they were called by God.

It is the gospel acclamation that brings that message down through the ages to us today in a sentence of blessing that in its fulfillment will undoubtedly keep us moving toward God. May God enlighten the eyes of our hearts, that we might know what is the hope that belongs to our call. Alleluia!