Here is a recent ‘Prayerful and Pastoral Reflections’, with a poem or “quote of the week” from our emailed resource.
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Dear Uniting Church Friends,
Welcome to this week’s Prayerful and Pastoral Reflections.
We have our foot on the threshold of a journey, metaphorically called a “Roadmap”, and we are in for a bumpy ride over the next few months. I imagine that many of us are feeling uncertain, even afraid, of what may be ahead of us on the road.
What will we be “giving up” to live through the next phase of our journey? Freedoms? Connection? Safety? Certainty? Like the man in the gospel story (Mark 10:17ff), for some of us it is like giving up everything.
I found the words of Noel Davis helpful. “It is time to let go; dialogue with discontent; remain open; be receptive; pray from
our heart; trust what comes.” Trusting, whilst letting go, was the challenge too great for Jesus’ friend whom he loved.
May it not be too great for us.
The reflections from Richard Rohr pick up the question of money, and our relationship to it. It is a key issue in the particular gospel story, and a “soul” issue for all of us. We all know there are much more important things than money, yet we also often behave as if money is the most important thing. It is therefore a spiritual issue for us to consider in our relationships and our daily life. I hope you find the reflections helpful.
We are a prayerful community, and we invite you to find
a quiet moment to meditate with these words and stories.
Love and Blessings to you all.
Charles and Kerrie.
Cultivating inner trust
on the ground
of our now.
When our lives flatten out and a sameness lays claim
to our days,
it’s time to seize the initiative, time to choose to let go
dialogue with discontent
remain open
be receptive
pray from our heart
trust what comes
Noel Davis- Together at the Edge
Mark 10
Jesus looked steadily at him
and loved him
and said,
‘There is one thing you lack.
Go and sell everything you own
and give the money to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven;
then come, follow me.’
(For the whole story, read Mark 10:17-30)
Quotes for Reflection
There is un río profundo,
a river beneath the river.
The upper stream
has always been money
in all its forms,
beginning with trading
and bartering.
The deeper stream
is the spiritual meaning
such exchanges must have
for our lives.
Money and soul have
never been separate in
our unconscious because
they are both about
human exchanges,
and therefore,
divine exchange, too.
~~~
To participate
in the reign of God,
we have to stop counting.
We have to stop weighing,
measuring, and deserving
in order to let the flow
of forgiveness and love
flow through us.
The love of God –
We can’t earn it.
We can’t lose it.
As long as we stay in this world
of earning and losing,
we’ll live in
perpetual resentment,
envy, or climbing. …
~~~
To empty the self
is not an act of denial,
but of fulfilment,
for it creates space
for God to fill one’s being.
We are satisfied
by nothing less than God;
our deepest desire
is to be one with God,
even as Jesus was.
Made in the image of God,
our destiny is to become
one with God,
so that we too can say,
not my will but God’s be done.
This is not a loss, but again,
the greatest gain.
Richard Rohr
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