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My Nature is Fire

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April 25, 2016

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PRAYER OF SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA     (used at our house chat tonight)

In your nature, eternal Godhead, I shall come to know my nature. And what is my nature, boundless love? It is fire, because you are nothing but a fire of love. And you have given humankind a share in this nature, for by the fire of love you created us. And so with all other people and every created thing; you made them out of love. O ungrateful people! What nature has your God given you? His very own nature! Are you not ashamed to cut yourself off from such a noble thing through the guilt of deadly sin? O eternal Trinity, my sweet love! You, light, give us light. You, wisdom, give us wisdom. You, supreme strength, strengthen us. Today, eternal God, let our cloud be dissipated so that we may perfectly know and follow your Truth in truth, with a free and simple heart. God, come to our assistance! Lord, make haste to help us! Amen.

 

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Taste the joy of being awake

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April 23, 2016

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Inspiration takes time I think.  Being present to what IS.  Seeing, hearing, touching, tasting what is already there as if with new eyes, new ears, new hands, new lips – appreciating with reverence and joy or delight the sacredness of ordinary things.  In this way: rocket from a friends garden, dived potatoes and tomatoes, eggs picked up by a housemate who also brings back that first coffee of the day. The meal is symbolic of more than the sum of its parts, overtones of love and life, aromas of sharing and community, flavour and savour more than mere fuel.  I wish everyone’s life could be made up of recognising these things that make life worth living… we get busy and we get blind.
I will taste the joy of being awake.

 

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O Spirit Come…

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April 22, 2016

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O Spirit Come…

Come with Your transforming power.  Breathe upon and into my thoughts and actions this day. Let my work be a labour of love. May those who come into contact with me feel sheltered and cared for .  May I do or say some piece of goodness that will help others feel affirmed and supported.  Let Your wind and fire move me into the places where I am needed. Let me become Your breath so that I may assist You in breathing new life into places that are stale and unfruitful. Make me forceful and gentle, powerful and humble. O Spirit, come.

an excerpt from 7 Sacred Pauses (p.84)

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Let me love You

Filed under: theopoetics — Leave a comment
April 21, 2016

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photo credit: Johan Bergström-Allen, http://www.carmelite.org/

the gold loses its lustre
candlelight yields
a warm reflection
but these are
sacred and ordinary things
fabric, candleholders, cross
they aren’t imbued with any
special strength of their own
how then shall I love You?
the dust motes suspended
in light from the window
they are golden too
and the fine
sunlit hairs of my arms
they are golden too
let me love You on
the ordinary and extraordinary days
let me love You in
ordinary and extraordinary ways
let me love You

 

Talitha Fraser

 

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I go

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I go,
where my soul sings
where the harmonies of
the universe can be heard
humming,
I go,
I go where it is quiet
enough to make out a
whisper,
loud enough to drown
out the voices in my
head,
I go where I can hear You.
I go outside
where I can understand
my place in the order of
things
I go inside
where the the echoes of pilgrims
past are in the mosaics
and the pages
I go inside yet
dark and terrible
but I am not alone there
I am not alone anywhere
I go,
to remember
why I stay.
I go on.

 

Talitha Fraser

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Worship the Wilderness Way

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April 17, 2016

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We gather for prayer – everyone is sent out into the garden, in silent reflection, to collect something that speaks to the space they’re in and these are planted in our tray of red earth imported from Bron’s recent trip to Western Australia… our dryness, brittleness, zest, hope, strength, fragility, potential, healing…

We sing:

Everything I need is right in front of me (x2)
Can we be manna, manna?
Can we be manna for each other? (x2)

Humble yourself in the arms of the wild
you got to lay down low and humble yourself in the arms of the wild
you got to ask her what she knows and
we will lift each other up (clap) higher and higher (x2)

Can it be that what we need to feel fulfilled, heard, held, connected exists in the environment around us?

How can we be daily sustenance to one another? What can a garden teach us about how to do that?

Wilderness is speaking. What does it say? What can we learn?

With climate change our children are inheriting a legacy where the environment, weather, water and oil will all feature prominently in their future – how are we equipping them to meet it?  If our children,  godchildren, nephlings, neighbourlings and anyone who comes along asks of us: “why didn’t you do anything?”, how will you answer?  Whatever seeds of hope we might have, we must sow.

 

Mark 4: 8-9
“…still other seed fell on good soil, where it sprouted, grew up, and produced a crop—one bearing thirtyfold, another sixtyfold, and another a hundredfold.”
Then Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

 

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Speak truth

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April 6, 2016

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I have a voice that knows what truth is
I need to listen for the leading of that voice
learn a discipline of heeding that voice
let the still small Voice
that speaks for my spirit and my heart
not of what I ought and should
but be and could
I have a voice that knows what truth is
I have a voice.
Know what truth is.
Voice truth.

 

Talitha Fraser

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Ambassadors of Reconciliation

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March 31, 2016

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Doing the BCM Restorative Justice unit, here’s a link to one of the articles.

“This theology of radical inclusion was disconcerting to both Jewish ethnocentrism and Hellenistic ideologies of superiority.  In Greco-Roman antiquity the cultural, economic and political enmity between Jew and Gentile was profound. These two communities were institutionally and historically alienated—not unlike the modern legacy of racial apartheid or the protracted struggle between Israelis and Palestinians or Protestant Loyalists and Catholic Republicans in Northern Ireland. But Paul refused to abide by the social divisions around him, instead trying to build bridges called churches.”

So here I sit with:

  • who is reconciliation to be accomplished by?
  • what do we refuse to abide by?
  • who/where are the bridge builders? (or alternative societies being modelled)?
  • what are we called to be fools for?
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Beyond loving

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March 28, 2016

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Camping for Easter in the Brisbane Ranges and I have brought along Cheryl Lawrie’s beautiful Pocket Liturgies for reflection…

confession

you see all and know all
or so they seem fond of saying.

you call us beloved.
which is all well and good from your side
but you can have no idea how hard it is to be loved.

[we know the bit inside us
which is beyond loving;
too awful to be named,
too hard to save,
even for you.]

we confess that we do not believe you can change us
we confess that we do not believe that we can start again
we confess that we do not know how to have faith.

so do what you can with that.

amen.

 

[p.37, Hold This Space Pocket Liturgies by Cheryl Lawrie]

 

Let me learn how to be loved
how to let love in
how to give it freely
and receive it in
whatever form it might appear
let love in, and out, in and out
let us breathe
and give air to love

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We have decided not to die

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March 27, 2016

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Camping for Easter in the Brisbane Ranges and I have brought along Cheryl Lawrie’s beautiful Pocket Liturgies for reflection…

i.

We have decided not to die.

We have decided not to believe the voices of cynicism
the prophets of doom
the harbingers of despair
the proclaimers of fear
who speak loudly and only of death that’s inevitable.

we have decided not to die.

we have chosen to believe in life.

and now we must learn to live.

 

ii.

We have decided not to die.
and now we must learn to live.

to really live
to stretch and wonder and test and dare
to imagine the unthinkable
to defy the gravity of fear and despair
to find the faith that believes there is another story
of life, grace and redemption
and to live as though it is the only story.

we will listen for where God’s heartbeat is giving life to the world
and we will search,
wildly, unceasingly
until we find where our own heartbeat echoes in it.

and though it may mean letting go of all we know,
we will.

for we have decided not to die.

we have decided now to live.

 

[p.80, Hold This Space Pocket Liturgies by Cheryl Lawrie]

 

 

God, let me life a life called into living.
To see, to hear, to be awake
Let me believe in life and believe in You.
“to stretch and wonder and test and dare
to imagine the unthinkable
to defy the gravity of fear and despair
to find the faith that believes there is another story
of life, grace and redemption
and to live as though it is the only story.”

Show me how to live God
how to live the life You
call me into
live a life by another story
as though it is the only story
when I lean and learn
into the story and the story
is still unfolding
that story is Yours
I am Yours
let me live

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