Liturgies

GATHERING

ENTRANCE

REFLECTION

Hope is not wishing: no, not that tentative.

Hope is not wanting: no, not that self-centered.

Hope is trust in grace unseen,

already there, already unfolding,

the seed beneath, the child within.

Hope is surrender to a greater movement,

acceptance that I am the thread

and the tapestry is vast.

Hope is confidence in spring as winter approaches.

Hope is belief in the fullness of time.

Hope is knowing in death and suffering

there is a healing presence.

Hope is patience, letting grace take its time.

Hope is planting ourselves in a future

that exists only in our acting:

raising children, loving enemies, planting trees.

Hope is awaiting the One Who is Here.

— Steve Garnaas-Holmes, “We Live by Hope,”
 https://unfoldinglight.net/2019/12/09/gjylxrs66zw2w78jgp8jb93j85spj7/

GATHERING

ENTRANCE

REFLECTION

You can’t get to any of these truths by sitting in a field smiling beatifically, avoiding your anger and damage and grief. Your anger and damage and grief are the way to the truth. We don’t have much truth to express unless we have gone into those rooms and closets and woods and abysses that we were told not go in to. When we have gone in and looked around for a long while, just breathing and finally taking it in – then we will be able to speak in our own voice and to stay in the present moment.
And that moment is home.  Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird, p. 200

GATHERING

ENTRANCE

REFLECTION

That day I saw beneath dark clouds
the passing light over the water
and I heard the voice of the world speak out,
I knew then, as I had before
life is no passing memory of what has been
nor the remaining pages in a great book
waiting to be read.

It is the opening of eyes long closed.
It is the vision of far off things
seen for the silence they hold.
It is the heart after years
of secret conversing
speaking out loud in the clear air.

It is Moses in the desert
fallen to his knees before the lit bush.
It is the man throwing away his shoes
as if to enter heaven
and finding himself astonished,
opened at last,
fallen in love with solid ground.

David Whyte, “The Opening of Eyes,” River Flow, p.31

GATHERING

ENTRANCE

REFLECTION

The empires of the world depend on force. They have come and gone; and the ones that now exist will follow in their turn. … Jesus, at his ascension, was given by the creator God an empire built on love. As we ourselves open our lives to the warmth of that love, we begin to lose our fear; and as we begin to lose our fear, we begin to become people through whom the power of that love can flow out into the world around that so badly needs it. And as the power of that love replaces the love of power, so in a measure, anticipating the last great day, God’s kingdom comes, and God’s will is done, on earth as it is in heaven. N.T. Wright, Following Jesus, p. 111

GATHERING

ENTRANCE

REFLECTION
But we have this treasure in clay pots so that the awesome power belongs to God and doesn’t come from us. We are experiencing all kinds of trouble, but we aren’t crushed. We are confused, but we aren’t depressed. We are harassed, but we aren’t abandoned. We are knocked down, but we aren’t knocked out. We always carry Jesus’ death around in our bodies so that Jesus’ life can also be seen in our bodies.  We who are alive are always being handed over to death for Jesus’ sake so that Jesus’ life can also be seen in our bodies that are dying.

2 Corinthians 4:7-11, Common English Bible