URBANarmy

I came across this helpful prayer recently. Oh God, we are one with You. You have made us one with You. You have taught us that if we are open to one another, You dwell in us. Help us to preserve this openness and to fight for it with all our hearts. Help us to realize that there can be no understanding where there is mutual rejection. Oh God, in accepting one another wholeheartedly, fully, completely, we accept You, and we thank You, and we adore You, and we love You with our whole being, because our being is in Your being, our spirit is rooted in Your spirit. Fill us then with love, and let us be bound together with love as we go our diverse ways, united in this one spirit which makes You present in the world, and which makes You witness to the ultimate reality that is love. Love has overcome. Love is victorious. Amen. - with thanks to Richard Rohr!

Latest book tackled by the Suttonsa book group was Barbara Kingsolver's Poisonwood Bible. Fascinating insight to the Congo of the 1960's and the impact of Nathan Price's narrow fundamentalist missionary thinking on his family. His alter ego Brother Fowles having identified that there are Christians and then there are Christians has this to say about creation. "When I  want  to  take God  at  his word exactly , I  take  a  peep out  the  window  at  Creation .  Because  that, darling, He  makes fresh  for us  every day without  a  lot  of  dubious middle managers ."  ~ Brother Fowles It resonated with another quote I read recently  " Having a narrow opinion from a narrow set of information is only natural. What mucks it all up when a narrow set of information is assumed to be wider than it is." ~ Jef Rouner (No it's not your  opinion, you are ju...

Mostly today chewing over an interesting thought from Richard Rohr's insights of Thérèse of Lisieux!! He talks about the spirituality of imperfection, with the thought that perfection is the ability to include imperfection."Imperfection, in the great spiritual traditions, is not just to be tolerated, excused, or even forgiven. It is the very framework inside of which God makes the God-self known and calls us into gracious union". He talks about Ladder Theology that began to emerge in the early Constantine Church "Once you align with the mind and will of empire and success, your spirituality focuses on perfection, achievement, performance, attainment, and willpower"