How Does God Speak to You?

 How does God speak to you?  What language do you and God use?  What energizes and excites you?

God often speaks to me in words and ideas.  I know this because words and ideas energize  me.  Another thing that energizes me is learning new things.  

How does God speak to you?  Music?  Pictures?  Nature?  Animals?  People? Something else?  What energizes and excites you?  God is there, St. Ignatius said.

We continue our series on Prayer this Sunday with Psalm 42 (below). When I prayed it one morning I was drawn immediately to Verse 8. It seemed so personal to me.  I felt comforted.  Why, I wondered?  So  I looked carefully at the words:

By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
    and at night his song is with me,
    a prayer to the God of my life.

Then I looked carefully at the words of the other verses, and noticed that Verse 8 is the only verse that contains the word “love”.  No wonder I felt comforted!

I noticed something else.  “LORD” is only used in Verse 8, and it is written with all capital letters.   The other verses use “God”, and only the first letter is capitalized.  What’s the difference, I wondered?

Many of you might know this already, but I learned something this week.  In the original Hebrew,  the text in Verse 8 of Psalm 42 shifts from the general word God (Elohim), to using God’s personal, holy name, YHWH, which many bible translations translate to LORD in English.  Wow.   That makes the love personal too!

Now I’m wondering about another thing too.  How is knowing about the difference between Elohim and YHWH going to change my reading of the Bible in the future?

Psalm 42 NRSV

As a deer longs for flowing streams,
    so my soul longs for you, O God.

My soul thirsts for God,
    for the living God.
When shall I come and behold
    the face of God?

My tears have been my food
    day and night,
while people say to me continually,
    “Where is your God?”

These things I remember,
    as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng
    and led them in procession to the house of God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving,
    a multitude keeping festival.

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise him,
my help and my God.

My soul is cast down within me;
    therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
    from Mount Mizar.

Deep calls to deep
    at the thunder of your torrents;
all your waves and your billows
    have gone over me.

By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
    and at night his song is with me,
    a prayer to the God of my life.

I say to God, my rock,
    “Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I walk about mournfully
    because the enemy oppresses me?”

As with a deadly wound in my body,
    my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me continually,
    “Where is your God?”

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise him,
    my help and my God.

One of the great discoveries of Ignatius is that God is in the deeper desires of your heart. This is not the superficial stuff, e.g. the desire for comfort, ease, or quick fame, but rather the long-term attraction you feel toward something that is genuinely life-giving. This means paying attention to what energises you and also what deadens you. Where do you really come alive in your life right now?   - Brendan McManus, SJ

If Prayer is a Conversation with God, How Do We Begin a Relationship?

 

This is just one of the many questions we might have about prayer.  Here are a few others we talked about on Wednesday evening in our Prayer Group meeting:

What do we pray for?  What if we can't find the words?  How do we pray for things we don't want (like things for our enemies)?  What is the difference between personal and community prayer?  Is there a right and a wrong way to pray? Who speaks first in our conversation with God?

What are your questions about prayer?

Even the apostles asked Jesus about prayer (Luke 11)!  And so we begin this Sunday to have a closer look at Praying…with the prayer book that Jesus used - the Psalms. 

In 2024, I began to meet with a Spiritual Director.  He repeatedly asked me “How did that feel?”  I found that I was unable to answer that question, so he suggested that I “pray” the psalms.  “The Psalms are meant to engage the emotions,” he said.  

A few months later, Gordon Smith, an instructor at Regent college, said to our Spiritual Discernment class, “ The most important spiritual practice is to pray the psalms.  Know the psalter so well that you know which psalm is needed.”

I still don’t know the psalter at all well, so I am enthusiastic about the upcoming series, beginning with Psalm 27:

The Lord is my light and my salvation;

     whom shall I fear?

 The Lord is the stronghold of my life;

     of whom shall I be afraid?

 

When evildoers assail me

     to devour my flesh—

 my adversaries and foes—

     they shall stumble and fall.

 

Though an army encamp against me,

     my heart shall not fear;

 though war rise up against me,

     yet I will be confident.

 

One thing I asked of the Lord,

     that will I seek after:

 to live in the house of the Lord

     all the days of my life,

 to behold the beauty of the Lord,

     and to inquire in his temple.

 For he will hide me in his shelter

     in the day of trouble;

 he will conceal me under the cover of his tent;

     he will set me high on a rock.

 

Now my head is lifted up

     above my enemies all around me,

 and I will offer in his tent

     sacrifices with shouts of joy;

 I will sing and make melody to the Lord.

Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud,

     be gracious to me and answer me!

 “Come,” my heart says, “seek his face!”

     Your face, Lord, do I seek.

     Do not hide your face from me.

Do not turn your servant away in anger,

     you who have been my help.

 Do not cast me off, do not forsake me,

     O God of my salvation!

  If my father and mother forsake me,

     the Lord will take me up.

 

Teach me your way, O Lord,

     and lead me on a level path

     because of my enemies.

Do not give me up to the will of my adversaries,

     for false witnesses have risen against me,

     and they are breathing out violence.

I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord

     in the land of the living.

 Wait for the Lord;

     be strong, and let your heart take courage;

     wait for the Lord!

Letting yourself be known in this relationship means more or less the same as it does in any relationship:  you must speak about your life, share your feelings, and reveal yourself openly. 

- Learning to Pray, James Martin, SJ

O Eternal One,
It would be easier for me to pray
      if I were clear
              and of a single mind and a pure heart;
      if I could be done hiding from myself
    and from you, even in my prayers.

• Ted Loder, Guerrillas of Grace 

What Does Jesus Show Us About God in This Story?

The Washing of the Feet, by Sieger Koder

Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

In his telling of the Last Supper, John writes of an act of love not found in the other three Gospels. Jesus washes the disciples’ feet, but Simon Peter stops him.  ‘No,’ said Peter, ‘you shall never wash my feet.’

In my imagination, I watch Jesus kneel at my feet. He takes one of them in his hands, looking deeply into my eyes to understand my response before he begins. I feel loved, but also a bit uncomfortable.  I see how vulnerable he is at that moment. 

I invite you to put yourself in the story (below).  

How would you feel if Jesus wanted to wash your feet?  What do you see in his eyes?   Would you be able to receive his love?  Can we take what he offers?

There is also a passage from the Old Testament, from the prophet Jeremiah.  What does the New Covenant say about God?

 Jeremiah 31. 31-34  NIVUK

‘The days are coming,’ declares the Lord,

    ‘when I will make a new covenant

with the people of Israel

    and with the people of Judah.

It will not be like the covenant

    I made with their ancestors

when I took them by the hand

    to lead them out of Egypt,

because they broke my covenant,

    though I was a husband to them,’

declares the Lord.

‘This is the covenant that I will make with the people of Israel

    after that time,’ declares the Lord.

‘I will put my law in their minds

    and write it on their hearts.

I will be their God,

    and they will be my people.

John 13 excerpts  NIVUK

It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel round his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped round him.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, ‘Lord, are you going to wash my feet?’

Jesus replied, ‘You do not realise now what I am doing, but later you will understand.’

 ‘No,’ said Peter, ‘you shall never wash my feet.’

Jesus answered, ‘Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.’

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. ‘Do you understand what I have done for you?’ he asked them. ‘You call me “Teacher” and “Lord”, and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.  I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. 

I come with joy, a child of God,

forgiven, loved and free,

the life of Jesus to recall

in love laid down for me.

Footwashing

         Jesus poured water into a basin 

         and began to wash the disciples’ feet.

                          —John 13.5

A basin of baptismal water,

mother’s water breaking,

river of life, basin of tears.

With gentle hands he enfolds your feet,

your journey, your sorrow,

your pain.

He washes away

your fear, your betrayal,

your failure.

He rejoices to do this.

He is tender with you.

He is beneath you. Always.

__________________      

Steve Garnaas-Holmes  

Unfolding Light  

www.unfoldinglight.net

What Can Jesus Teach Us About REALationship? What Makes a Good Friend?

Honesty, loyalty, enjoyment, support, vulnerability, forgiveness, commitment, interest…those are some of the words our Wednesday Night Pentecost Study group used to describe attributes of a good friend. 

This children’s book cover illustrates to me how close Jesus was to his friends - his facial expression and eye contact demonstrate his vivid interest in them, their connection.  What do you think was the basis of this friendship?

I never realized until our series on The Trinity, how much Jesus talked about friendship. What do Jesus’ commandments/teachings have to say about how he viewed relationships? 

And then Jesus promised to send us an everlasting friend. A friend who would be with us to the end of the age…connected and committed to us even as we change over time. In your experience, how does the Holy Spirit demonstrate the characteristics of a good friend?

2 Corinthians 13:13

 

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.

 Matthew 28:19-20

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

Romans 8. 26-28

Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

I’m looking forward to worshiping with you in the final chapter of Rev. Donna’s Trinity series. 

The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose

he will not, he cannot, desert to its foes;

that soul, though all hell should endeavour to shake,

he never will leave, he will never forsake.

What Do You Notice About These Grapevines?

 

I see tiny branches anchored in each sturdy stem.  From the sturdy stem, the branches receive all the nutrients and water they need to produce grapes. The tiny branches need a lot of support, though, to hold the heavy, juicy grapes that will grow.  Without the support of the wires that run between the plants, the heavy grapes would rip the branches from the vines. 

"I am the vine; you are the branches”, Jesus said. “Remain in me, as I also remain in you.”

Remaining in Christ requires us to be fully connected to Jesus in every moment.  How do we do that?  Who or what are your supports that keep you anchored in Jesus? 

After comparing us to these branches anchored in him, the vine, Jesus tells us to love each other in the same way that he has loved us - sacrificially.  What does this mean for us in how we deal with each other?

Jesus also tells us that only by staying connected to him, the vine, can we bear fruit in our relationships.  How can the Trinity support us in staying anchored in Jesus?

To prepare for Sunday’s worship you might pray one or both of the scripture passages below, and/or watch this video about the magic of the Trinity:

https://youtu.be/J8lRKCw2_Pk

John 15  NIVUK

‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.  Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.

‘I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 

This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

‘As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.  Now remain in my love. 

 My command is this: love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.  I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.  You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last.

Romans 8. 26-28 MSG

Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along.   If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter.  He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans.  He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God.  That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

If you observe the following, you can be saved, ‘Be joyful at all times, pray without ceasing and give thanks for all things. - Abba Benjamin

What makes us human is not our mind but our heart, not our ability to think but our ability to love.  We find the best formulation of the prayer of the heart in the words of the Russian mystic Theophan the Recluse: ‘To pray is to descend with the mind into the heart, and there to stand before the face of the Lord, ever-present, all-seeing, within you.’  … There God’s spirit dwells and there the great encounter takes place.  There heart speaks to heart, because there we stand before the face of the Lord, all-seeing, within us. - Henri Nouwen

You’re blessed when you get your inside world—your mind and heart—put right. Then you can see God in the outside world. - Jesus, Matthew 5:8 MSG