The Holy in the Ordinary by Ann Weems

I rediscovered the following prayer by Ann Weems in her book Kneeling in Jerusalem. I have to admit that when I came to the part "spiritual contemplation is all right for those who have the time," I wanted to invite Weems to join Contemplative Living where we do discover that the holy IS in our everyday lives.

Nevertheless, the prayer is a good one for the beginning of Lent, and Weems' questions help us to ponder.

Blessed beginnings,

Cindy

 

The Holy in the Ordinary by Ann Weems Holy is the time and holy is this place and there are holy things that must be said. Let us say to one another what our souls whisper... O Holy One, cast your tent among us; come into our ordinary lives and bless the living! Forty days stretch before us, forty days of hungering after faithfulness, forty days of trying to understand the story, and then, Holy Week... O God, if every week were holy... These forty days stretch before us, and those of us who believe yearn to feel Your presence, yearn to be Your people; and yet, the days fill with ordinary things with no time left for seeking the holy. Spiritual contemplation is all right for those who have the time, but most of us have to make a living. Most of us have to live in the real world where profanity splashes and blots out anything holy. Where, O Holy One, can we find You in this unholy mess? How, O God, can we find the holy in the ordinary?

 

 

Rev. Cindy Garis

Executive Director

Oasis Ministries for Spiritual Development

419 Deerfield Road

Camp Hill, PA  17011

cindygaris@oasismin.org

717-737-8222 

 

Explore www.oasismin.org

 

At My Window by Linda Pastan

Shared by SDSG graduate, Alfred Krass, after receiving the Wicks "Snow Falling on Snow" prayer sent in an Oasis e-news. Sign up to receive Oasis e-news at www.oasismin.org.

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At My Window

 

By Linda Pastan

(from PM/AM—New & Selected Poems)

 

I have thought much

about snow,

the mute pilgrimage

of all those flakes

and about the dark wanderings

of leaves

 

I have stalked

all four seasons

and seen how they beat

the same path

through the same woods

again and again.

 

I used to take a multitude

of trains, trusting

the strategy of tracks,

of distance.

I sailed on ships

Trusting the arbitrary north.

 

Now I stand still

at my window

watching the snow

which knows only one direction,

falling in silence

toward silence.

Snow Falling on Snow by Robert J. Wicks

In a cozy little corner I sit and pray,
wrapped in a warm sweater with a candle
lit before a mysterious icon.

Outside, the snow is swirling and the
wind whooshing and the tree branches
scratching against the house wanting to come in.

Then in the spaces in between, when the
wind is forgotten and all is quiet…
I open my heart to listen.

And as I hear the peaceful sound of snow
falling on snow, my soul slowly softens…
and my worries retreat to the edge of the room.

Finally I realize with joy that no matter
how uncertain life may become,
I will always be safe and warm
when I am at home with You.

Amen

Love After Love by Derek Walcott

The time will come
when, with elation
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror
and each will smile at the other's welcome,

and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved you

all your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,

the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.

Quote pointing toward justice by Salman Rushdie

 

Those who do not have power over the story that dominates their lives, the power to retell it, rethink it, deconstruct it, joke about it, and change it as times change, truly are powerless, because they cannot think new thoughts.

- Salman Rushdie

 

Quote pointing toward justice by Salman Rushdie

Those who do not have power over the story that dominates their lives, the power to retell it, rethink it, deconstruct it, joke about it, and change it as times change, truly are powerless, because they cannot think new thoughts.

- Salman Rushdie

 

Saying on 'love' by Teilhard de Chardin

The day will come when, after harnessing the winds, the tides and gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of Love. And on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.

 

- Teilhard de Chardin

 

Indian saying on 'life'

When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.

- Indian saying

 

Quote on 'life' by Howard Thurman

Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.
- Howard Thurman

 

Quote on 'beauty' by Rumi

Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground.

- Rumi

 

Quote on 'Play' by Nagle Jackson

The truly great advances of this generation will be made by those who can make outrageous connections, and only a mind which knows how to play can do that.

- Nagle Jackson

 

Quote on Attention by Simone Weil

Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.

- Simone Weil

 

Quote by Eduardo Galeano

The Church says: The body is a sin.
Science says: The body is a machine.
Advertising says: The body is a business.
The body says: I am a fiesta.

 

- Eduardo Galeano

 

Quote by Thich Nhat Hanh

The miracle is not to walk on water. The miracle is to walk on the green earth in the present moment, to appreciate the peace and beauty that are available now.
-Thich Nhat Hanh

 

Quote by Howard Thurman

When the song of the angels is stilled, when the star in the sky is gone, when the kings and princes are home, when the shepherds are back with their flock, the work of Christmas begins:  to find the lost, to heal the broken, to feed the hungry, to release the prisoner, to rebuild the nations, to bring peace … to make music in the heart.

- Howard Thurman
American author, civil rights leader, and theologian (1899-1981)

Primary Wonder by Denise Levertov

Days pass when I forget the mystery.
Problems insoluble and problems offering
their own ignored solutions
jostle for my attention, they crowd its antechamber
along with a host of diversions, my courtiers, wearing
their colored clothes; cap and bells.
 
And then

once more the quiet mystery
is present to me, the throng's clamor
recedes: the mystery
that there is anything, anything at all,
let alone cosmos, joy, memory, everything,
rather than void: and that, O Lord, 
Creator, Hallowed One, You still,
hour by hour sustain it.

Prayer for Clearing Up the Past by Marianne Williamson

Dear God,
Please take my past and take my future,
Transform them both through the miracle of Your power into energies of love and love only.
May I know the present as You would have me see it.
May I see only You in everyone and everything that I might be dazzled by the light, lifted up by the light, given joy by the light, and made new by the light.
Release me from my past and deliver me to my future.
In You I trust; nothing else is real.
In You I have faith; nothing else has power.
And so it is that I am where I belong, and I shall strive for nothing.
I am at home; may I feel this and be at peace.
For I would rob myself no longer through my vain imaginings and tormented thoughts.
You are my life.
You are here and now.
Amen.