Liturgies

REFLECTION     

Great indeed is the baptism which is offered you. It is a ransom to captives; the remission of offenses; the death of sin; the regeneration of the soul; the garment of light; the holy seal indissoluble; the chariot to heaven; the luxury of paradise; a procuring of the kingdom; the gift of adoption.

Cyril, Bishop of Jerusalem (c. 315-386)

from “Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril”

REFLECTION     

When we can identify the kingdom of heaven sown around us it’s not just an FYI kind of thing; it’s a subversion. It’s God peeking through the curtain and letting us know that there is a deeper reality present in the world – a reality in which God gets God’s way.

Nadia Bolz-Weber, pastor of House for All Sinners and Saints, Denver, Colorado. From a sermon titled “The Kingdom of Heaven is like . . .” Aug. 8, 2011

REFLECTION     

Our whole life is Advent — that is, a time of waiting for the ultimate, for the time when there will be a new heaven and a new earth . . . . Learn to wait, because he has promised to come. . . . We call to him: “Yes, come soon, Lord Jesus!”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, A Testament to Freedom

REFLECTION                                                                                                                                        

Let me bathe in your words.

Let me soak up your silence.

Let me hear your voice.

Let me enter your quiet.

Let me tell out your stories.

Let me enclose them within me.

Let me be the spaces

between the phrases

where you make your home.

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REFLECTION

I choose to believe in One who says it’s never too late to be on this path . . . because it’s really the only path. Not to constantly relive the past and cast blame on those who have hurt us and didn’t teach us well how to open our hearts, but to live now as beginners, each moment like children just starting out.

Kayla McClurg, Inward/Outward, 10/24/2009