June 3, 2011

Reflection (The readings are below, for your reference)

Every day a child is born and we are reminded once again, of the mind-blowing truth that God is good and that God transforms pain into joy! Wow!

“Last night as I was sleeping,

I dreamt—marvelous error!—

that I had a beehive

here inside my heart.

And the golden bees

were making white combs

and sweet honey

from my old failures.”

- Antonio Machado

Namaste! Amen!

The Readings

John 16:20-23

Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy. When a woman is in labor, she has pain, because her hour has come. But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world. So you have pain now; but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. On that day you will ask nothing of me. Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.

The reading is from the website below.

http://bible.oremus.org/

June 2, 2011

Reflection (The readings are below, for your reference)

I am reading Falling Upward by Richard Rohr and I find it very helpful. In it he talks about building an ego and then sacrificing it. You have to go down in order to go up. He refers to the many instances of that myth throughout all cultures: Persephone descending to the underworld before spring can be reborn; Sleeping Beauty slumbers for a hundred years before awakening to love’s kiss; Jacob wrestles with the angel before becoming Israel; and the death and resurrection of Jesus. That’s what I thought about when I read “you will have pain, but your pain will turn to joy.” In other words, we all suffer loss(es), which are reborn as joy. If you are confused, you are in good company!! Jesus repeats himself three times in this one passage!

Namaste! Amen!

The Readings

Acts 18:1-8

Psalm 98:1-4

John 16:16-20

‘A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me.’ 17Then some of his disciples said to one another, ‘What does he mean by saying to us, “A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me”; and “Because I am going to the Father”?’ 18They said, ‘What does he mean by this “a little while”? We do not know what he is talking about.’ 19Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him, so he said to them, ‘Are you discussing among yourselves what I meant when I said, “A little while, and you will no longer see me, and again a little while, and you will see me”? 20Very truly, I tell you, you will weep and mourn, but the world will rejoice; you will have pain, but your pain will turn into joy.

The reading is from the website below.

http://bible.oremus.org/

June 1, 2011

Reflection (The readings are below, for your reference)

I love reading that God in Jesus considers what we can and cannot bear to hear and sends us inspiration (literally “breaths of spirit”) as we need it. Come Holy Spirit and fill our hearts!

Namaste! Amen!

The Readings

Acts 17:15,22 – 18:1

Psalm 148:1-2,11-14

John 16:12-15

‘I have much more to tell you, but you can’t bear to hear it now. When the Spirit of truth comes, she will guide you into all truth. She won’t speak on her own initiative; rather, she’ll speak only what she hears, and she’ll announce to you things that are yet to come. In doing this, the Spirit will give glory to me, for she will take what is mine and reveal it to you. Everything that Abba God has belongs to me. This is why I said that the Spirit will take what is mine and reveal it to you.

The reading translation is from The Inclusive Bible: The First Egalitarian Translation (New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2007).