I’m mostly taking a break from the blog this week, but I wanted to list the readings and offer a prayer.
This week’s prayer:
Lord, help us to experience Your power in our vulnerability and to recognize that Your power is the power of love. Help us not to cling to our expectations and preconceived notions so that neither limit our ability to recognize You and to experience Your love. I pray this prayer in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
In this interval in which time is in shorter supply than usual, the following quotations stand out to me from the readings for June 30:
God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living. For he fashioned all things that they might have being; and the creatures of the world are wholesome. . . .
Wisdom 1:13-14
For you know the gracious act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, for your sake he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich . . . . Not that others should have relief while you are burdened, but that as a matter of equality your abundance at the present time should supply their needs, so that their abundance may also supply your needs, that there may be equality.
2 Corinthians 9 and 13
On this readthrough of the Gospel passage, I’m reminded of how important each of us is to God and to the world around us, even when we feel invisible and insignificant. I’m also reminded of how important journeys are. So many opportunities come up when we’re on the way to do something else. This passage teaches that even what looked like death can be a passageway to a new experience of life.
Beyond this week’s readings:
It looks like I’m not going to get a chance to write a post for next week, so I’ll see you back here in two weeks.
This week’s prayer:
Lord, thank you for the goodness of the natural world and for caring about the concerns of everyone in it. Thank you for meeting us where we are and for helping us to do good and to appreciate the beauty around us — sometimes when we least expect to receive opportunities or to be reminded of Your presence. Amen.
This is the first week of a two-week break from the blog. During the break, I’m turning the focus of this space to reflections on the Sunday readings from two of my spiritual sisters.
This week’s look at experiences of being called comes from Marissa Papula.
Sitting with the Sacred 