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A prayer for this season... This prayer may be used by individual communities in isolation, whether said quietly, or over online video message. It uses famous words quoted by Julian of Norwich, who lived and suffered during the Bubonic Plague. In a conversation with God, she wrestled with the current social situation and suffering. She believed God to have replied to her, in solidarity, with a promise of greater Shalom: ‘...all shall be well...’
Retreat @Home | A Journey through Holy Week A 7 day series with The Community of the Tree of Life. His Story - Our Story - My Story.
Download the full meditations... DAY 1: Lord, if you had been here... DEVICE READY | PRINT READY DAY 2: Unbind him and let him go DEVICE READY | PRINT READY DAY 3: Can you smell it? DEVICE READY | PRINT READY DAY 4: Wash my feet? DEVICE READY | PRINT READY DAY 5: It is finished DEVICE READY | PRINT READY DAY 6: They laid Jesus there... DEVICE READY | PRINT READY DAY 7: I have seen the Lord DEVICE READY | PRINT READY
CLEAN UP AT THE BUS STOP Everything I see I see through a dimmed glass darkly…
But, what if I remove my glasses scratch, or clean the camera lense back. Will clarity, then, not appear itself to me?!
Safer in ‘metaphors’ that bring 'meaning’ to existence and satisfy my hunger for purpose. But 'mystery’ broods deeper.. stirs enigma.. without offering resolution.
And if light isn’t actually a 'thing’, but casts other 'things’ in to 'being’, Then what of love and it’s creation of 'be'longing.
In true 'not yet now’ mentality, all I see is blurry bokeh-like bright pin points of light…
So I’ll just diligently do my bit: clean up at the bus stop , sit and wait for the penny to drop, extend the table, and plant seeds of potential. All the while praying for peace to sink in so deep, and for it to become my only motive, when i go about spraying everything with windowlean!
Remain, live, dwell in the land and do good.
Occupy the space your body’s dignity demands, and honour your fragile flesh with each choice to stand, with each footstep taken in hostile territory. Where rocks are thrown because of your skin and bone, remember you stand on holy ground because you sanctify it with your presence. And where darkness surrounds you, hold on to this: you were formed in the blackness of the womb, given life in the shadows of your mother, so do not fear, even here creation will burst forth anew.
Remain, live, dwell in the land and do good.
Where ‘the Other’ is treated with cruelty and disdain, remain an ally, a shield, a present friend, and look those with barbs and knifes in the eye and say ‘the pain you intend for them, you must do to me, for I will not run and I will not bend.’ Do not cower because old prejudices have been given fresh incentive, new legitimacy and greater audience. Love will trump hate, however high a seat it takes knock out its legs from under it.
Remain, live, dwell in the land and do good.
Stand up to those who deal in darkness and death; profiteers of lies and debt, isolated and insulated from the ninety-nine percent. It is for you now to rise up and overwhelm the tide, push back and resist the dominant narrative, the lies, the ‘worker/shirker/scrounger’ rhetoric that serves to divide people from people, creating difference where there is only common existence. Instead, in each word, in each action, make life sacred, as if it was in your very power to bless all flesh with holy honour.
Remain, live, dwell in the land and do good.
Remain where others wait for you to tire, to eventually give in and give up. Persevere, press on, grow. Allow hope to take root in the depths of your heart, pushing back fear, and occupying a fought-for territory: demanding of reality something different, something better, that this reality be, in fact, not our reality. Instead, hold out for what could be and walk it in with humble steps. And where hope carves crisis in your soul, remember your presence is a protest, your feet a new path created, your voice a morning choir, and your existence an act of resistance. So, this year, plant your feet with purpose.
Remain, live, dwell in the land and do good.
What king is this? Who dressed in flesh and blood and bones; who humbly wove through humanity every thread of the Godhead’s divinity: a saviour cloaked in humility that he might come incarnate to our vicinity.
What king is this? Who baring our wounds took them cruciform upon himself; who was pierced and beaten in place of us that we might tread confidently the depth of his grace for us and know we can never out-love him or indebt him to us.
What king is this? Who did not die on the battlefield, or lie anointed in the palace halls; who accepted an exile’s death outside his city’s walls that pushing back the social boundaries even in death, showed us inclusion of the greatest kind and widest breadth.
What king is this? Who’s last breath brought forth the Spring; who liberating the earth from winter’s occupation, invited man to hope and know: that restoration is the gift of God for those who wait in expectation.
What king is this? Who chose the tomb laid out for his death and decay, and instead, made it his womb, that he might make for us a way: new life; born in the most broken of places, that we would not fear our own brokenness but embrace the way he has made for us.
What king is this? Who like the dawn takes back the night, consumes our darknesses, and through his light restores us to himself: reconciled, redeemed, received; that no fear, anxiety, or even death’s sting, will impede, His great love for us.
What king is this? This king is Christ: Immanuel, God with us, the liberator, exonerator, messiah, prince of peace, redeemer, king of kings, king of the jews, rabbi, friend, companion, son of david, son of mary, son of man, son of God, the light of the world, the radiance of God’s own glory: Jesus.
What king is this? This king is Christ: The formless boundless Word that breathed before the earth, who waking longed-for emancipation walked and bled upon a groaning creation, proclaiming release to the captive, sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed; announcing, this is the year of Jubilee, that we might taste and see: the power of life through death through resurrection and cry out ‘Wake in us our souls to life and lives to transformation.’
What King is this? This king is Christ.
Words by Helen Griffiths.
I AM WITH YOU – READY TO BE BORN (LUKE 2:1-19 & MATTHEW 2:1-12) About that time Caesar Augustus ordered a census to be taken throughout the Empire. Everyone had to travel to his own ancestral hometown to be accounted for. So Joseph went from the Galilean town of Nazareth up to Bethlehem in Judah for the census. we walk along the roadside with Joseph ticking all the 'right' boxes and jumping through all the 'right' hoops trying desperately to hold ourselves together as everything around us spirals out of our control overwhelmed by circumstance, we ask; where is God in all of this? In response to our circumstances something deep inside whispers I AM with you He went with Mary, his fiancée, who was pregnant. While they were there, the time came for her to give birth. She gave birth to a son, her first-born. She wrapped him in a blanket and laid him in a manger, because there was no room in the hostel. we wait expectantly with Mary ticking time tempering our hopes and dreams whilst giving fear fertile ground to foster trying to keep on keeping on despite ourselves afraid of failure, we ask; Why is God not doing anything? In response to our fear something deep inside whispers I AM with you There were sheep-herders camping in the neighbourhood. They had set night watches over their sheep. Suddenly, God’s angel stood among them and God’s glory blazed around them.
we stand shoulder to shoulder with the shepherds diligently do our duties and clocking up nine to fives trying our best to navigate the normal with no time or space to recognise the supernatural terrified by change, we ask
what would it actually look like if Gods glory broke in? In response to change something deep inside whispers I AM with you After Jesus was born in Bethlehem village, Judah territory— this was during Herod’s kingship—a band of scholars arrived in Jerusalem from the East. the star appeared again, the same star they had seen in the eastern skies. It led them on until it hovered over the place of the child. we journey with the scholars from the east hearing rumours of restoration we lift our eyes to the treetops and see star-signs trying to figure out who we are and how we play are part desperate to find answers, we ask; where can we actually find Jesus? In response to our questions something deep inside whispers I AM with you And I've been here all along hidden in plan sight bound up in beauty and brokenness found in our fallings and failures in the depths of everything and everyone Immanuel resides Ready to be born Amen Reflection by Matt Long.
THE NOT YET NOW | ADVENT CALENDAR
As I hold you tonight under the buzzing hot lights of this hospital room I remember the young mother of another son... No bright lights in that stark stable But a mother's kiss upon his brow just the same And in her arms the precious promise of a kingdom that is coming His feeble cry our redemption song His arrival ushering in a tomorrow better than today As I pray for you tonight and watch your little chest quickly rise and fall, a tangle of wires around your feet, I remember our hope was met in a baby.
Words & Image from Vikki and The Little Wolves
THE NOT YET NOW | ADVENT CALENDAR | EVENING PRAYER
Quiet is held
John 1:1-19
‘At the beginning God expressed himself. That personal expression, that word, was with God, and was God, and he existed with God from the beginning. All creation took place through him, and none took place without him. In him appeared life and this life was the light of mankind… So the word of God became a human being and lived among us. We saw his splendour, full of grace and truth…’ (J.B. Phillips)
O Lord, open our lips. And our mouth shall proclaim your praise.
O Lord, we bless your name: and tell of your salvation from day to day.
Call: Who is it that you seek? Response: We seek the Lord our God. Call: Do you seek Him with all your heart? Response: Amen. Lord, have mercy. Call: Do you seek Him with all your soul? Response: Amen. Lord, have mercy. Call: Do you seek Him with all your mind? Response: Amen. Lord, have mercy. Call: Do you seek Him with all your strength? Response: Amen. Christ, have mercy.
Father, put flesh to our faith; put feet to the ground as we seek You. Draw us to You in our humanness, our simplicity, our vulnerability and help us find You in our flesh.
God incarnate, help us to live as fully human. God with us, help us to live closely with you and with our neighbour.
Christ Jesus, guide our hands and feet, and teach us to live as You do in the world.
Draw us to You in our neighbour, in the stranger, in the other, lest we feel the absence of Your touch.
God incarnate, help us to live as fully human. God with us, help us to live closely with you and with our neighbour.
Holy Spirit, comfort us and guide us, in mind, body, and soul. Draw us to You in each other, and give breath to our thoughts, words and deeds.
God incarnate, help us to live as fully human. God with us, help us to live closely with you and with our neighbour. Amen.
Reflection (A. Devi):
You inhabit the totality of my being So quietly I often forget you are there. You occupy the corners where even I Sometimes fear to enter and reside. You abide in the midst of my weakness And accept my endless efforts to change.
Oh, the mystery, the wonder, the power Of your dwelling within my simple heart! Thank you for the gift of your presence, For the permanent lodging of your love.
I turn to the One who dwells in me.
Silence is kept
Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours, yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion is to look out to the earth, yours are the feet by which He is to go about doing good and yours are the hands by which He is to bless us now. (St Teresa of Avila)
Blessing:
May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you, wherever He may send you. May He guide you through the wilderness, protect you through the storm. May He bring you home rejoicing at the wonders He has shown you. May He bring you home rejoicing once again into our doors.
