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Post by Jim Pate on Feb 18, 2015 8:33:52 GMT -5
A Lenten Prayer - from Henri Nouwen's The Road to Daybreak The Lenten season begins. It is a time to be with you, Lord, in a special way, a time to pray, to fast, and thus to follow you on your way to Jerusalem, to Golgotha, and to the final victory over death. I am still so divided. I truly want to follow you, but I also want to follow my own desires and lend an ear to the voices that speak about prestige, success, pleasure, power, and influence. Help me to become deaf to these voices and more attentive to your voice, which calls me to choose the narrow road to life.
I know that Lent is going to be a very hard time for me. The choice for your way has to be made every moment of my life. I have to choose thoughts that are your thoughts, words that are your words, and actions that are your actions. There are not times or places without choices. And I know how deeply I resist choosing you.
Please, Lord, be with me at every moment and in every place. Give me the strength and the courage to live this season faithfully, so that, when Easter comes, I will be able to taste with joy the new life that you have prepared for me. Amen.
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Post by Jim Pate on Feb 22, 2015 8:37:30 GMT -5
Reflection for the First Sunday of Lent
Living Lent Attentively and Gently - By Henri J.M. Nouwen Lent is the most important time of the year to nurture our inner life. It is the time during which we not only prepare ourselves to celebrate the mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus, but also the death and resurrection that constantly takes place within us. Life is a continuing process of the death of the old and the familiar, and being reborn again into a new hope, a new trust, and a new love. The death and resurrection of Jesus therefore is not just an historical event that took place a long time ago, but an inner event that takes place in our heart when we are willing to be attentive to it.
Lent offers a beautiful opportunity to discover the mystery of Christ within us. It is a gentle but also demanding time. It is a time of solitude but also community, it is a time of listening to the voice within, but also a time of paying attention to other people's needs. It is a time to continuously make the passage to new inner life as well as to life with those around us.
When we live Lent attentively and gently, then Easter can truly be a celebration during which the full proclamation of the risen Christ will reverberate into the deepest place of our being.
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Post by Jim Pate on Mar 1, 2015 9:30:55 GMT -5
Reflection for the Second Sunday of Lent
Discerning the Presence
The Gospels are filled with examples of God's presence in the word. Personally, I am always touched by the story of Jesus in the synagogue of Nazareth. There he read from Isaiah: The Spirit of the Lord is on me, for he has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives, sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim a year of favor from the Lord. (Luke 4:18-19)
After having read these words, Jesus said, "This text is being fulfilled today even while you are listening." Suddenly, it becomes clear that the afflicted, the captives, the blind, and the oppressed are not people somewhere outside of the synagogue who, someday, will be liberated; they are the people who are listening. And it is in the listening that God becomes present and heals.
The Word of God is not a word to apply in our daily lives at some later date; it is a word to heal us through, and in, our listening here and now.
The questions therefore are: How does God come to me as I listen to the word? Where do I discern the healing hand of God touching me through the word? How are my sadness, my grief, and my mourning being transformed at this very moment? Do I sense the fire of God's love purifying my heart and giving me new life? These questions lead me to the sacrament of the word, the sacred place of God's real presence.
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Post by Jim Pate on Mar 8, 2015 8:40:34 GMT -5
Reflection for the Third Sunday of Lent
Returning to Trust - By Henri J.M. Nouwen, From Fear to Love In my own life I well know how hard it is for me to trust that I am loved, and to trust that the intimacy I most crave is there for me. I most often live as if I have to earn love, do something noteworthy, and then perhaps I might get something in return. This attitude touches the whole question of what is called in the spiritual life, the "first love." Do I really believe that I am loved first, independent of what I do or what I accomplish? This is an important question because as long as I think that what I most need I have to earn, deserve and collect by hard work, I will never get what I most need and desire, which is a love that cannot be earned, but that is freely given.
Thus, my return is my willingness to renounce such thoughts and to choose to live more and more from my true identity as a cherished child of God.
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Post by Jim Pate on Mar 15, 2015 9:03:42 GMT -5
Reflection for the Fourth Sunday of Lent
. . . they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress. Psalm 107:19
A Cry for Mercy
- An excerpt from Henri Nouwen's A Cry for Mercy:
Prayers from the Genesse O Lord, this holy season of Lent is passing quickly. I entered into it with fear, but also with great expectations. I hoped for a great breakthrough, a powerful conversion, a real change of heart; I wanted Easter to be a day so full of light that not even a trace of darkness would be left in my soul.
But I know that you do not come to your people with thunder and lightning. Even St. Paul and St. Francis journeyed through much darkness before they could see your light. Let me be thankful for your gentle way. I know you are at work. I know you will not leave me alone. I know you are quickening me for Easter - but in a way fitting to my own history and my own temperament. I pray that these last three weeks, in which you invite me to enter more fully into the mystery of your passion, will bring me a greater desire to follow you on the way that you create for me and to accept the cross that you give to me. Let me die to the desire to choose my own way and select my own desire. You do not want to make me a hero but a servant who loves you.
Be with me tomorrow and in the days to come, and let me experience your gentle presence. Amen.
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Post by Jim Pate on Mar 22, 2015 9:06:56 GMT -5
Reflection for the Fifth Sunday of Lent
Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit. - Psalm 51:12
Unconditional Love
An excerpt from Henri Nouwen's Home Tonight: Further Reflections on the Parable of the Prodigal Son
When we freely allow fear to dominate and change us, we live in misery far from our home of unconditional love. Meanwhile Jesus, our example, says to the disciples and to us, "Don't be afraid. Perfect love casts out fear." He walked freely, lived freely, and carried on an intimate relationship with the One who sent him into the world. Throughout the nights or early mornings Jesus spent time communing with the One who loved him. Among his last words he tells us, "As the Father has loved me, so I also love you. . . . If you keep my word, the Father and I will come to you and we will make our home in you. . . . I will send you my Spirit, who will dwell with you forever, and will remind you of all I have said to you."
Jesus came to convince us that Our Maker's love is pure gift, unearned and free. We are free to relate with the Source of all life or not. A great love embraces all the love that you and I have ever known, from father, mother, spouses, brothers, sisters, children, teachers, friends, partners, or counselors. Welcoming unconditional love automatically makes us more like the Unconditional Lover. Divine love lasts forever.
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Post by Jim Pate on Mar 29, 2015 8:44:36 GMT -5
O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever! Psalm 118:1
The Path of Waiting An excerpt from Henri Nouwen's Finding My Way Home Passion is a kind of waiting - waiting for what other people are going to do. Jesus went to Jerusalem to announce the good news to the people of that city. And Jesus knew that he was going to put a choice before them: Will you be my disciple, or will you be my executioner? There is no middle ground here. Jesus went to Jerusalem to put people in a situation where they had to say "Yes" or "No". That is the great drama of Jesus' passion: he had to wait for their response. What would they do? Betray him or follow him? In a way, his agony is not simply the agony of approaching death. It is also the agony of being out of control and of having to wait. It is the agony of a God who depends on us to decide how to live out the divine presence among us. It is the agony of the God who, in a very mysterious way, allows us to decide how God will be God. Here we glimpse the mystery of God's incarnation. God became human not only to act among us but also to be the recipient of our responses. . . . And that is the mystery of Jesus' love. Jesus in his passion is the one who waits for our response. Precisely in that waiting the intensity of his love and God's is revealed to us.
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Post by Jim Pate on Mar 31, 2015 8:10:52 GMT -5
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Post by Jim Pate on Apr 1, 2015 1:58:49 GMT -5
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