Christ before me

He forever goes before us to prepare a place for us. He is on the road we tread. Wherever life is leading us, He has gone before. Perhaps we have no clue about what lies ahead; we know who is ahead of us, so the future is not quite unknown.
--David Adam---
From Celtic Daily Prayer

The gospel for next Sunday speaks of the Holy Spirit as the one Jesus would send to be a comfort to his disciples. “I will love them and make my home in them,” Jesus says.

Jesus has truly made his home in us, and as that is true, we know that he is with us no matter what we are doing. We do not find the presence of Christ solely in church, or in prayer; we find him abiding in and with us as we are in the garden, walking on the NCR trail, taking our children to Lacrosse games, working, tending the home – no matter what we do, God, through the Holy Spirit is there.

Today is Earth Day, and this Sunday beings Rogation Days, which combines the care for the Earth and its fruit with the understanding that God is at work in the world around us. Take some time out of doors this week to rejoice in God’s love that is found so abundantly in the world around us. All we see that God has made is a testament to God’s love for this world. What a comfort to know we can never be separated. Indeed, the apostle Paul wrote,

³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶As it is written:
"For your sake we face death all day long;
we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."[a] ³⁷No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[b] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:35-39)

Reverence
…in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord.
Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an
accounting for the hope that is in you;
yet do it with gentleness and reverence.
1 Peter 3:15-16

Reverence has gone out of style in the modern world-at least our part of it. And yet, without reverence our lives can be quite gray and quite bleak. It is the beauty and “otherness” of God that often inspires our wonder, and that same wonder can move us toward reverence.

The Epistle encourages us to sanctify or reverence Christ within our hearts.
In other words, to make a shrine within our deepest selves in which we are able to bow before the Lord.
Reverence makes sacred the ground of the soul.

Last week I wrote about “the troubled heart”. I might call this week’s meditation, the reverent heart.
Moving from trouble to sanctity-from the world to the sanctuary, we may begin to comprehend the life God is envisioning for us.

It is not a world devoid of trouble, but it is a world filled with beauty and meaning.

We kneel with our bodies to remind us that we belong to a power greater than we are, and we kneel
Within our hearts to reverence the one who is even now making a home in us.

Walk through the world this week and notice all there is to inspire awe-
A brilliant sunset, the beginnings of spring, colors, friends, rain, nighttime and morning.

Let God remind you of the beauty of holiness.
Practice reverence, even as the creation itself proclaims the handiwork of God.

Let your heart become a sanctuary for gentleness and reverence.

Let your heart be the dwelling place of the Christ.

Blessings,
Debra

God to enfold me,
God to surround me,
God in my speaking
God in my thinking
God in my sleeping
God in my waking
God in my watching,
God in my hoping.
God in my life,
God in my lips,
God in my soul,
God in my heart,
God in my sufficing,
God in my slumber,
God in my ever-living soul,
God in mine eternity.
--From The Celtic Vision--

Daily Morning Prayer:
http://www.episcopalchurchingarrettcounty.org/churchonthewebpage.htm

This Week at St. James:

Wednesday: 8:30 Healing Eucharist; 9:30 Bible Study; 7:30 pm Youth Discernment Workshop
Saturday: 8:30 am J2A Discernment meeting
Sunday: Rogation Sunday; 10:15 Children’s Eucharist in STM followed by parent meeting for 3rd-5th grades
Monday: 10:00 CS Lewis Book Study; 7:00 Contemplative Prayer

There will be no Pax next week - I will be in Bethesda for the final week of training in Family Systems Theory.

Prayers Etc.

I bind unto myself the name, the strong name of the Trinity;
By invocation of the same,
The Three in One and One in Three,
Of whom all nature hath creation;
Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
Praise to the Lord of my salvation,
Salvation is of Christ the Lord.
--St. Patrick’s Breastplate--

For those on our prayer list:
Carol W.; Chris and Adele; Cathy A.; David; Arabella
Brittany; Owen; Jennifer D.; Rob C.; Nancy K.
Andrew; Jason; Mimi and Poppa B.; Larry
Betsy

For Laura Brecht, for discernment and direction as she prepares to graduate from Seminary.

For those who are deployed and their families.

In Closing:

Bless to me, O God,
The earth beneath my foot,
Bless to me, O God,
The path whereon I go;
Bless to me, O God,
The thing of my desire;
Thou evermore of evermore
Bless thou to me my rest.
Bless to me the thing
Whereon is set my mind,
Bless to me the thing
Whereon is set my love;
Bless to me the thing,
Whereon is set my hope;
O thou King of kings,
Bless thou to me mine eye!
--from The Celtic Vision--

Pax et Bonum,
Loree+

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