Winter Time – Night

Theme: Union with God

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1. Introduction: Winter – Night

Please click the arrowhead in the center of the video to hear the Introduction.

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2. A Winter 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’s Thoughts on Night and Winter

4. Praying with Scripture

In our Gospel passage today, we join Jesus at the Temple in Jerusalem.  It is winter, and he is “walking about” in the open area.  Perhaps there is a small fire where he and others might warm themselves. What’s on Jesus’s mind as he paces this sacred ground? 

We know , from reading the Gospels, that it is also the “winter” of his life, the time when the Father is gathering all to completion. 

In this reading, we see that some hearts remain cold to his life-giving Word. It is painful for Jesus to realize this. But despite this heartache, remains ever confident in the Father’s love.

For this session, focus on John 10:22-30 – The Feast of the Dedication

Take some quiet time to reflect on this passage.
Allow yourself to be in the scene beside Jesus.

5. Reflection Nuggets: Winter – Night

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6. Poetry

Please enjoy these beautiful poems evoking the sentiments of winter, stillness, patience, deepening. You may want listen to this lovely music as you read the poems.

These Things – Renee Yann, RSM
You must tell yourself
these things will happen
before they happen:
the deep winter you will spend,
essentially, alone:
The falling into love
that will not catch you;
the death that rends you
into half of what you were:
the triumph, finally claimed,
bereft of meaning.
 
Otherwise,
when these things happen,
as they will,
you will be swallowed by them
as if you had not ever been
outside these things,
the way an ocean swallows
hail inside the storm.
 
You will be nearly cleaved:  
a raw, green peach 
whose freestone falls away in frost,
because these things are separating,
colder than the loneliness
of ice blue space,
and you are farther from yourself
within them than it is safe to ever be.
 
There is no climbing back
from these things.
You will bring their distance with you.
In the thinnest, splintered space
that separates the stone from peach flesh,
cold universes can insert themselves.
  
Instead, enter these things,
down the long cold slope inside them.
Inside even inverse passion,
there is cobalt fire,
though it masquerades in ice.
~ Renee Yann, RSM
 
Winter: Tonight: Sunset – David Budbill
Tonight at sunset walking on the snowy road,
my shoes crunching on the frozen gravel, first
 
through the woods, then out into the open fields
past a couple of trailers and some pickup trucks, I stop
 
and look at the sky. Suddenly: orange, red, pink, blue,
green, purple, yellow, gray, all at once and everywhere.

Closing Music: Seasons by Ben Tan

Virtue/Gift to pray for: Fidelity

Dear God,

We pray for the gift of fidelity. 
 Let us bravely live our winter times.
Give us a great trust in your Presence,
even in the dark moments of our lives.
Beyond that, let us find the soul-secrets
only darkness can reveal
– that You are ever faithful to us,
that in sorrow, loss and seeming emptiness,
still You and I are one.
We ask this in Mercy. Amen

Autumn Time – Dusk

Theme: Savor Your Maturing Faith

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1. Introduction: Autumn – Dusk

Please click the arrowhead in the center of the video to hear the Introduction.

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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.

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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

Virtue/Gift to pray for: Gratitude/Appreciation

Dear God,
We pray for the gift of gratitude,
that sacred virtue
which can transform our lives
from the inside out.
Let grateful awareness fill our prayer,
the way color fills the autumn trees.
Like the multi-colored leaves,
your blessings to us are beyond calculation.
Grateful, may we mirror your generosity
in all that we do.
We ask this in Mercy. Amen.

Summertime – Noontime

Theme: Live in the fullness and freedom of your faith.

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1. Introduction: Summer – Noontime

Please click the arrowhead in the center of the video to hear the Introduction.

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2. A Summertime Story

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Spend a little time now reflecting on,
or re-listening to the story.
Does it awaken any spiritual thought
or prayer in your heart?

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3. Sister Kate has a few thoughts on Noon and Summer:

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4. Praying with Scripture

Picture Israel in the beautiful warm weather.  (Maybe some of you are fortunate enough to have been there.) It might have been a late May Saturday afternoon. Jesus and his young companions are on a little picnic but – typical guys – they forgot the food! 

But there in the colorful field, the heads of wheat are still green and not yet turned golden and dry. The wheat kernels are plump and soft, full of protein and sugar. This is the only time of year that they could be eaten raw.

The whole scene speaks to us of summer, and of the joy and freedom Jesus came to offer all of us within the New Law of Love.

And then the Pharisees appear – those whose power depends on using the law to control and oppress, requiring sacrifices and taxes of the poor only to benefit themselves.

Let’s listen to Matthew describe the scene.

Scripture : Matthew 12: 1-8 — Picking Grain on the Sabbath

Take some quiet time to reflect on this passage.
Allow yourself to be in the scene beside Jesus.

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5. Reflection Nuggets: Summer – Noontime

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.

Eagle Poem - Joy Harjo
To pray, you open your whole self
To sky, to earth, to sun, to moon
To one whole voice that is you.
And know there is more
That you can't see, can't hear
Can't know except in moments
Steadily growing, and in languages
That aren't always sound but other
Circles of motion.
Like eagle that Sunday morning
Over Salt River.  Circles in blue sky
In wind, swept our hearts clean
With sacred wings.
We see you, see ourselves and know
That we must take the utmost care
And kindness in all things.
Breathe in, knowing we are made of
All this, and breathe, knowing
We are truly blessed because we
Were born, and die soon, within a
True circle of motion,
Like eagle rounding out the morning
Inside us.
We pray that it will be done
In beauty.
In beauty.

Now I Become Myself – May Sarton
Now I become myself. It’s taken
Time, many years and places;
I have been dissolved and shaken,
Worn other people’s faces,
Run madly, as if Time were there,
Terribly old, crying a warning,
“Hurry, you will be dead before—”
(What? Before you reach the morning?
Or the end of the poem is clear?
Or love safe in the walled city?)
Now to stand still, to be here,
Feel my own weight and density!
The black shadow on the paper
Is my hand; the shadow of a word
As thought shapes the shaper
Falls heavy on the page, is heard.
All fuses now, falls into place
From wish to action, word to silence,
My work, my love, my time, my face
Gathered into one intense
Gesture of growing like a plant.
As slowly as the ripening fruit
Fertile, detached, and always spent,
Falls but does not exhaust the root,
So all the poem is, can give,
Grows in me to become the song,
Made so and rooted by love.
Now there is time and Time is young.
O, in this single hour I live
All of myself and do not move.
I, the pursued, who madly ran,
Stand still, stand still, and stop the sun!

Closing Music: Michael Mangan – For Everything

Virtue/Gift to pray for: Generous Love

Dear God,
We pray for the gift of generous love.  
Let us live with summertime hearts.
Confident that, in You,
we already have everything we need,
may we allow your love to flow generously
from us to all Creation,
especially to those most in need
of your warmth, light, and confidence.
We ask this in Mercy. Amen.

Hello, friends.
You will notice a few extra Lavish Mercy postings in the next few hours. Here’s why:
Sister Kate and I are sharing a retreat with a small group of Mercy Associates.
We are doing this by way of Lavish Mercy.
I could have made the retreat private for Associates only, 
but I could not prevent WordPress from sending all followers an email notification of the postings.
I thought that would make you all curious about the contents.
So I have left the postings public.
Feel free to enjoy them if you wish.
And thanks so much for your daily support. 
Sister Renee