Autumn Time – Dusk
Theme: Savor Your Maturing Faith
1. Introduction: Autumn – Dusk
Please click the arrowhead in the center of the video to hear the Introduction.
2. An Autumn Story
Spend a little time now reflecting on,
or re-listening to the story.
Does it awaken any spiritual thought
or prayer in your heart?
3. Sister Kate thoughts on Dusk and Autumn
4. Praying with Scripture
In our first session scripture reading, Jesus and his disciples were frolicking through a summer grain field. In today’s reading, the seasons are passing. The same fields are now “white” for the harvest. The fullness of time has come.
The disciples have been with Jesus for some time now. They have been learning his ways. The time has come for them to practice full discipleship, one nourished and matured by their loving attendance on the Word who is Jesus.
For this session, focus on verses 35-36. We will pray with the rest of the chapter in a later session.
Take some quiet time to reflect on this passage.
Allow yourself to be in the scene beside Jesus.
5. Reflection Nuggets: Autumn – Dusk
6. Poetry:
Please enjoy these beautiful poems evoking the sentiments of summer, noontime, fullness and energy. You may want listen to this lovely music as you read the poems.
The Wild Geese – Wendell Berry Horseback on Sunday morning, harvest over, we taste persimmon and wild grape, sharp sweet of summer's end. In time's maze over the fall fields, we name names that went west from here, names that rest on graves. We open a persimmon seed to find the tree that stands in promise, pale, in the seed's marrow. Geese appear high over us, pass, and the sky closes. Abandon, as in love or sleep, holds them to their way, clear in the ancient faith: what we need is here. And we pray, not for new earth or heaven, but to be quiet in heart, and in eye clear. What we need is here.
I Will Remember - Renee Yann, RSM In another place, where life’s demands are rude, and time is spinning faster than my soul, I will remember You in this green wood, when spirit, will, desire, love were whole. I will remember your sweet hand in saffron glove, reaching through flaxen sunlit trees. I will remember the suggestion of your love, humming promises to me like golden bees; how sun dipped lower, lower to the earth, lifting up to Its cheek the auburn sod; how in a moment, like a splendent birth, I was transported to the Face of God. When this lucid hour of love is through, Dusk is the way I will remember You.
Closing Music: Autumn – Audrey Assad
Lyrics:
As the dew falls on the blade You have touched all this fragile frame And as a mother knows her baby's face You know me, You know me As the summer air within my chest I have breathed You deep down into my breast And as You know the hairs upon my head Every thought and every word I've said Every thought and every word I've said Savior, You have known me as I am Healer, You have known me as I was As I will be in the morning, in the evening You have known me, yeah, You know me Oh, and as the exhilaration of autumn's bite Oh, You have brought these tired bones to brilliant life And as the swallow knows, she knows the sky This is how it is with You and I Oh, this is how it is with You and I Savior, You have known me as I am Healer, You have known me as I was As I will be in the morning, in the evening You have known me, yeah, You know me From the fall of my heart to the resurrection of my soul You know me, God, and You know my ways In my rising and my sitting down You see me as I am, oh, see me as I am And as a lover knows his beloved's heart All the shapes and curves of her even in the dark Oh, You have formed me in my inward parts And You know me, You know me, yes Savior, You, You have known me as I am Oh, healer, You have known me as I was As I will be in the morning, in the evening You have known You have known me, in the morning, in the evening You've known me, God In the morning, in the evening You have known me Yeah, You've known me You have always known me You know me, God, You have known me You have always known my heart
