Tag Archive: life


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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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“I will not agree to my children going to shed their blood.
Though your words are strong,
you will not move me to help you…
you can fight your own fight
until the end”

– quote from the centenary exhibition at the Wellington National Library

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The GALLIPOLI: The Scale of War exhibition at Te Papa

Anzac Day in 2015 marks the 100th anniversary of the ANZAC landings at Gallipoli…How’s this for engagement with/reflection on war?

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the red line you follow through the exhibition follows the timeline of the engagements with a cross symbolising each life lost along the way in a very confronting impression of the price for each metre of land gained… and lost.

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Communion @ FCOC

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This song was written reflecting on the Love Makes A Way movement which seeks to see children freed from detention. But even as I wrote it I felt a sort of grief – not just that of refugees heartsick for a safe refuge, a place at the table, but imagining God talking about a kingdom where this is not the way things were supposed to be.  It felt like God was saying “There is room here, let Me move…” whatever boundaries or limits or problems you are carrying today… maybe there’s a pattern of behaviour you’d like to see change, of your own or someone else.  A situation of your own or some else where you feel bound or stuck or like you don’t have any choices – whether you’re feeling that personally, for loved friends or family… for strangers on a boat… As we sing together – hear God saying “There is room here, let me move….”

Sing LMAW song:

There is room at the table,
there is room at the table
There is room at the table,
let me in, let me in…

In Luke, Jesus looks at his friends and says “I’m so glad we get to share this last Passover meal together ‘cos I’m not going to get to do this again with you until the kingdom of God comes.

The kingdom of God hasn’t come.

But part of why we do this ritual is to remember… to remember that resurrection is ours, God’s kingdom will come if we participate in building it and love makes a way.  Let’s eat and drink together… and take that promise in.

It is

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It is so beautiful here.

Beauty seen.

If you choose the

time and inclination

to see it.

Talitha Fraser

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“Ye that have faith to look
with fearless eyes beyond the tragedy of a world at strife,
and know out of the death and strife shall rise the dawn of ampler life…”

———

#centennial

#nonviolence

#our God is undocumented

#what does it mean to live an ampler life? is this it?

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This story has become a strong (repeating) narrative, or metamessage, in my life – coming to mind at particular crossroads between easy, straight paths and narrow windy ones. Seemingly simple points of decision making around how I spend my money and how I spend my time that can feel weighted with symbolic meaning.  These are the resources I have, where do I invest them?  Every day that we live is an opportunity to invest in where our hope lies, to build – with whatever we have – the world we wish we lived in. At times the pull to do what is easy, to do what is accepted and expected can be so strong…

“I have seen too many stars to let the darkness overwhelm me”
– Macrina Wiederkehr

“What in me is dark, illumine” – John Milton

(7 Sacred Pauses)

Communion @ FCOC

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I took myself to NGV International this week for quiet time to prep for communion – this is a photo from their 16th and 17th Century Art section.  All the images in the gallery to the left of the frame were images of the crucifixion of Jesus and all those to my right the birth… we’ve just had Easter (crucifixion) and now we’ve got the months before Christmas (birth).  It’s easy to think of Jesus at these times – the time he was born and the time he died (then rose) – those were miraculous events and out of my reach. I know there are people out there who just connect with church at the high holidays but this is what they miss… I can’t ‘be like Jesus’ in the sense of how he was born or died, this can make Jesus seem far away, but the life in between these events… telling stories, listening to others, going for walks, praying, holding kids, going fishing – these things are in our reach… Life we can live between these special sacred high holidays in ‘ordinary time’, this is when it’s easier to be near and be like Jesus.

Jesus is sitting eating the Passover meal with his friends – people who worked for the Roman Empire and rebels who worked to overthrow it… JB Were and the Occupy Movement, the rich with inherited investments and property portfolios and those of inter-generational poverty on Centrelink, Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander peoples with colonisers… took the food they were eating in front of them and made it sacred. He took ‘ordinary time’ and made it sacred, imbuing it with ritual and meaning.

…something to think about next time you go fishing.

Rose Valley Falls

003the valley is in shadow
and the water here
runs silver like liquid mercury
a shining wealth
this flowing, life giving
life force commuting the very stones to its course
there is much that can be learned from water
diamonds, starlight pouring from the moss
catching and releasing in the same moment
paying forward what is received
shining in the shadows
hope unlooked for

Talitha Fraser