Pax et Bonum

October 27, 2010

It is our duty as men and women to proceed
as though the limits of our abilities do not exist.
---Pierre Teilhard de Chardin---

Blessed be God who has brought us to this day.
Blessed be the God of all our days.
Thanks be to Jesus who restores us to wholeness.
Thanks be to Jesus in whose death is our life.
Praise to the Spirit who calls us to service.
Praise to the Spirit who leads us in love.
---from Changes: prayers & services honoring rites of passage---

The Joy of a Christ Centered Life

I just returned from CREDO, a wonderful opportunity for clergy to take seven days to reflect on four areas of their lives: spiritual, health, financial, and vocational. Along with very helpful plenaries and workshops, we had the opportunity for time one-on-one with professionals who have wisdom in one of those four areas. I came away with much to think about and reflect upon.

One of the most enjoyable parts of the week was the time spent with other participants, twenty-two other clergy from across the country. I was talking with one of them on the way to lunch, passing across a bridge over a spectacular mountain lake. We were talking about the challenge of Christian Formation, of helping people understand what this Christian life was all about. She said to me, "we have the privilege of inviting people into the joy of a Christ-centered life."

The Joy of a Christ-centered life. Do we think of our life with Christ as a gift of joy? I know sometimes our walk with Christ can be duty-centered, or guilt producing. Sometimes we limit what we do in the way of our spiritual journey because we fear being over-committed, or we think we may not have the biblical knowledge we should have. But how often do we think in terms of the Joy that is waiting for us?

And by that, I do not mean the Joy waiting for us in heaven, but the Joy that is right here. Those times when our passions connect with what God is doing in the world, perhaps; the joy of seeing other people ministered to through our efforts; the joy of doing things that will make a difference in someone else’s life.

Have you found the Joy in the Christ-Centered life?

The vitality of God be mine this day
The vitality of the God of life.
The passion of Christ be mine this day
The passion of the Christ of love.
The wakefulness of the Spirit be mine this day
The wakefulness of the Spirit of justice.
The vitality and passion and wakefulness
Of God be mine that
I may be fully alive this day.
The vitality and passion and wakefulness of God
That I may be fully alive.
---Celtic prayer---

Debra’s Midweek Meditation

"The seeds that are planted in my liberty at every moment, by God’s will, are the seeds of my own identity, my own reality, my own happiness, my own sanctity."
Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation

Read Debra’s current Meditation, New Seeds, on the Center for Spiritual Development Blog

This Week at St. James

• Saturday: Diocesan Horizons gathering at Claggett for all who are interested.
• Sunday:
  • All Souls’ Liturgies at 8:00 and 10:15
  • Stewardship Sunday
  • Visit by the Union of Black Episcopalians at 10:15
  • Sundaes during Coffee Hour
  • Harvest Festival for the Sunday School.
• Monday: 10:00 CS Lewis Book Study
• Tuesday:
  • Voting in the Parish Hall
  • 7:30 Admin meeting
• Wednesday: 8:30 Healing Eucharist

Prayers Etc.

For those on our prayer list:

• Terri
• Keegan O.
• Dorothy O.
• Hope
• Dolores
• Adam
• Lee
• Lou
• Sandy C.
• Tom G.
• Philip
• Ruby R.
• Hank
• Dick
• Susan C.
• Rachel C.
• Billy
• Dana H.
• Owen
• Betsy
• Read
• David W.
• Mimi B.
• Bill B.
• Martina
• Lance
• Robert
• Robin M.
• Carey
• Alan W.

For Matt Rogers, our Seminarian
For those who are deployed and their families

In Closing:

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way
to something unknown,
something new.
Yet it is the law of all progress that is made
by passing through some stages of instability
and that may take a very long time.
And so I think it is with you.
Your ideas mature gradually.
Let them grow.
Let them shape themselves without undue haste.
Do not try to force them on
as though you could be today what time
--that is to say, grace –
and circumstances
acting on your own good will
will make you tomorrow.
Only God could say what this new Spirit
gradually forming in you will be.
Give our Lord the benefit of believing
that his hand is leading you,
and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself
in suspense and incomplete.
Above all, trust in the slow work of God,
our loving vine-dresser. Amen.
---Pierre Teilhard de Chardin---

Pax et Bonum,
Loree+

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