- Proverbs 8: 22-31
- Psalm 8: 4-5, 6-7, 8-9
- Romans 5: 1-5
- John 16: 12-15
- God finds me ineffably delightful
- Can you say that with a straight face?
- Why or why not?
- Is there anyone else in your life who finds you a delight, who believes that the world is a better place for your being in it?
- How does their attitude toward you make you feel about yourself, about others, about God?
- Making room for the beautiful
- Where/what do you find beautiful about creation?
- What do those places/times/events tell you about God?
- Why do you think that God made all of this so beautiful?
- How do you participate in that beauty?
- How can you be more beautiful?
- How much character to I really need?
- Do you think that joy and sorrow are necessarily mutually exclusive, or can they reinforce each other?
- What gives you joy?
- How long does that joy last?
- Are you a better person for that joy?
- How can we learn to take joy in things that last?
- Infilling of the Spirit
- How does the Spirit enlighten up as a Church?
- How does the Spirit enlighten us as families?
- How does the Spirit enlighten us as individuals?
- How can we be better at discerning as a community?
- Do I delight in God?
- Is the world a better place, is creation a better place for my being in it?
- What am I doing to become stronger in my faith?
- How has the Spirit spoken to me lately? Have I shared that?
Discernment
First Fridays always struck me as a hard form of prayer.
Contemplating Jesus in the form of the static Presence
There on the altar, mute witness to an earlier Mass Celebration
Whose original attendees have all left for the day and gone home.
I wondered whether those who were here for that consecration
Were still connected in some way, still a part of each other
And of this Presence here before me, in a way that I could connect to
Some way without the whispered greetings of God's people gathering.
I wondered who was here that day, and where they all are now,
How they are faring, these children of God in the world.
I imagined some of my good friends among them
Some that my kids have grown up with.
And somehow it hit me, that if they were all here, with Jesus,
That they would have whispered greetings for me and my family
A hand shake, a nod. A well known usher waving from a distance,
And I realized that the face of Jesus really was gazing at me.
And I felt closer to Him on His altar
And I felt closer to His people here in front of His altar,
And I thanked Him for His hospitality, now and always.
As I got up to leave, I realized I may be leaving His house,
Leaving his house, but not His Presence.
Shalom!
Contemplating Jesus in the form of the static Presence
There on the altar, mute witness to an earlier Mass Celebration
Whose original attendees have all left for the day and gone home.
I wondered whether those who were here for that consecration
Were still connected in some way, still a part of each other
And of this Presence here before me, in a way that I could connect to
Some way without the whispered greetings of God's people gathering.
I wondered who was here that day, and where they all are now,
How they are faring, these children of God in the world.
I imagined some of my good friends among them
Some that my kids have grown up with.
And somehow it hit me, that if they were all here, with Jesus,
That they would have whispered greetings for me and my family
A hand shake, a nod. A well known usher waving from a distance,
And I realized that the face of Jesus really was gazing at me.
And I felt closer to Him on His altar
And I felt closer to His people here in front of His altar,
And I thanked Him for His hospitality, now and always.
As I got up to leave, I realized I may be leaving His house,
Leaving his house, but not His Presence.
Shalom!
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