Weekly Rerun 8-4-2020

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Music
“Deep calls unto deep,” the Psalmist says (42:7). The sound of God echoes within us, because we are made in His image. The frequency of the voice of God calls forth a sympathetic sound within us. The Church teaches that bells are “icons of the voice of God.” In our prayers, it is possible to become lost in the words. It is important to remember to sing – and to do so often.
Fr Stephen Freeman

No such thing as life without struggle
I know that there is no such thing as life without struggle. There is no one, not anyone, who escapes the soul-wrenching experiences that stretch the mind but threaten to calcify the spirit.
There is no one who has not known what it is to lose in the game of life, to feel defeat, to know humiliation, to be left standing naked and alone before the cold and staring eyes of a world that does not grieve for your grief.
Joan Chittistier – Scarred by Struggle – Transformed by Hope

Root of all sin
..the root of all sin—the beginning of the knowledge of good and evil—is entertaining a lie about who God is. If our mental picture of God is skewed, our relationship with God, with ourselves, and with others will be skewed as well. Conversely, the root of all healing and growth in life is found in being rooted and grounded in the truth of who God is, and this truth is decisively disclosed in the One who is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14: 6).
Greg Boyd – Repenting of Religion

Holy discontent
Holy discontent is that sense of soul that says, “There must be more of God than what I presently know.” It is the size of the gap between the story the Bible tells and the story your life is telling. Holy discontent is the distance between the truth one knows and the reality one experiences. Holy discontent is the beginning of the movement from spiritual milk to spiritual meat; from infancy in Christ to mature faith.
J D Walt

Grace
Pete Alwinson has a great definition of grace. “Grace is doing good for someone when there is no compelling reason to do so and every reason not to.”
That’s it! That is the grace God has given to us.

Immigrants
Immigrants are far more patriotic and far more deeply invested in “American” values such as reverence for our founding institutions, than either side of the political spectrum believes.
As the Cato Institute showed in a 2019 study, for example, three out of four naturalized citizens say that they are “very proud” of being American; among natural-born citizens, the figure is notably lower. Conversely, 69 percent of native-born Americans say that they are “ashamed” of some aspects of America; among immigrants, just 39 percent agree.

Non-violence
At the center of nonviolence stands the principle of love. The nonviolent resister would contend that in the struggle for human dignity, the oppressed people of the world must not succumb to the temptation of becoming bitter or indulging in hate campaigns. To retaliate in kind would do nothing but intensify the existence of hate in the universe. Along the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate. This can only be done by projecting the ethic of love to the center of our lives.
MLK

Speak out
Speak out, Hildegard says. And when you do, when you recognize that inner voice as the voice of God and say what it has taught you, the sickness in your heart will melt away. The fatigue you have lived with for so long that you did not even notice how weary you were will lift. Your voice will ring out with such clarity and beauty that you will not be able to stop singing. To speak your truth, Hildegard teaches us, is to praise God.
via Richard Rohr

Ill health of religion
It is customary to blame secular science and anti-religious philosophy for the eclipse of religion in modern society. It would be more honest to blame religion for its own defeats. Religion declined not because it was refuted, but because it became irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid. When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the voice of compassion—its message becomes meaningless.
Michael Spencer

When All is well
How easy it is to not notice that we are unloving when our religious activities are going so well! Our religious noise drowns out the cry of God’s heart.
Greg Boyd – Repenting of Religion

SO MUCH TO THINK ABOUT