Daily Meditation: Eucharist, the Sacrament of Communion

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Sunday September 30, 2012     Eucharist, the Sacrament of Communion   Baptism opens the door to the Eucharist.  The Eucharist is the sacrament through which Jesus enters into an intimate, permanent communion with us.  It is the sacrament of the table.  It is the sacrament of food and drink.  It is the sacrament of daily nurture.   While baptism is a once-in-a-lifetime event, the Eucharist can be a monthly, weekly, or even daily occurrence.  Jesus gave us the Eucharist as a constant memory of his life and death.  Not a memory that simply makes us think of him but a memory that makes us members of his body.   That is why Jesus on the evening before he died took bread saying, "This is my Body," and took the cup saying, "This is my Blood."  By eating the Body and drinking the Blood of Christ, we become one with him.     Comment on this Daily Meditation.   Visit our website for inspiration, resources, news, events, community. Text excerpts taken from Bread for the Journey, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, ©1997 HarperSanFrancisco. All Scripture from The Jerusalem Bible ©1966, 1967, and 1968 Darton, Longman & Todd and Doubleday & Co. Inc. Photo by V. Dobson.

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Finally Able to Love Others

Finally Able to Love Others Sue Monk Kidd One of the misconceptions about journeying to a deeper intimacy with God is that we don't need other people. We may want to get wrapped up in the coziness of "me and God." But of course this is a perverted spirituality and doomed from the outset. One of the worst illusions...would be to try to find God by barricading yourself inside your own soul. As we wake to God's love and presence in our lives, we actually become more capable of loving others. It's as if our hearts are somehow being enlarged. It means that as we open ourselves to God's love, journeying deeper into intimacy, we become more able to love ourselves. And when we love ourselves, we are finally able (and sometimes for the first time in our lives) to love others--not with a what's-in-it-for-me love, but with the strong, authentic, wear and tear love Christ showed us. Source: God's Joyful Surprise Read more and add your thoughts at inward/outward This message is a daily service of inward/outward. Was this message forwarded to you? Click here to sign up. No longer interested in receiving these readings? Click here to unsubscribe. Having trouble unsubscribing? Email Church of the Saviour Office: churchofthesaviour.office@gmail.com

Daily Meditation: Baptism, a Call to Commitment

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Saturday September 29, 2012    Baptism, a Call to Commitment   Baptism as a way to the freedom of the children of God and as a way to a life in community calls for a personal commitment.  There is nothing magical or automatic about this sacrament.  Having water poured over us while someone says, "I baptise you in the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit," has  lasting significance when we are willing to claim and reclaim in all possible ways the spiritual truth of who we are as baptised people.   In this sense baptism is a call to parents of baptised children and to the baptised themselves to choose constantly for the light in the midst of a dark world and for life in the midst of a death-harbouring society.     Comment on this Daily Meditation.   Visit our website for inspiration, resources, news, events, community. Text excerpts taken from Bread for the Journey, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, ©1997 HarperSanFrancisco. All Scripture from The Jerusalem Bible ©1966, 1967, and 1968 Darton, Longman & Todd and Doubleday & Co. Inc. Photo by V. Dobson.

Forward this Daily Meditation to a friend! This email was sent to cbgamb@gmail.com, by email_lists@henrinouwen.org Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy. Henri Nouwen Society | PO Box 220522 | St. Louis | MO | 63122 | USA Henri Nouwen Society | John M. Kelly Library, 3rd Fl. | 113 St. Joseph Street | Toronto | ON | M5S 1J4 | Canada

Converted Every Day

Converted Every Day Anonymous Be converted to love every day. Change all your energies, all your potential, into selfless gifts for the other person. Then you yourself will be changed from within and through you God's kingdom will break into the world. Source: Rule for a New Brother Add your thoughts at inward/outward This message is a daily service of inward/outward. Was this message forwarded to you? Click here to sign up. No longer interested in receiving these readings? Click here to unsubscribe. Having trouble unsubscribing? Email Church of the Saviour Office: churchofthesaviour.office@gmail.com

Daily Meditation: Baptism, the Way to Community

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Friday September 28, 2012     Baptism, the Way to Community   Baptism is more than a way to spiritual freedom.  It also is the way to community.  Baptising a person, whether child or adult, is receiving that person into the community of faith.   Those who are reborn from above through baptism, and are called to live the life of sons and daughters of God, belong together as members of one spiritual family, the living body of Christ.  When we baptise people, we welcome them into this family of God and offer them guidance, support, and formation, as they grow to the full maturity of the Christ-like life.     Comment on this Daily Meditation.   Visit our website for inspiration, resources, news, events, community. Text excerpts taken from Bread for the Journey, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, ©1997 HarperSanFrancisco. All Scripture from The Jerusalem Bible ©1966, 1967, and 1968 Darton, Longman & Todd and Doubleday & Co. Inc. Photo by V. Dobson.

Forward this Daily Meditation to a friend! This email was sent to cbgamb@gmail.com, by email_lists@henrinouwen.org Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy. Henri Nouwen Society | PO Box 220522 | St. Louis | MO | 63122 | USA Henri Nouwen Society | John M. Kelly Library, 3rd Fl. | 113 St. Joseph Street | Toronto | ON | M5S 1J4 | Canada

Sincere But Not Simple

Sincere But Not Simple Francois Fenelon There are many people who are sincere without being simple: they are ever afraid of being seen for what they are not; they are always musing over their words and thoughts and thinking about what they have done, in fear of having done or said too much. These people are sincere, but they are not simple: they are not at ease with others, and other people are not at ease with them. There is nothing easy about them, nothing free, spontaneous, or natural. People who are imperfect, less regular, less masters of themselves, are more lovable. Source: True and False Simplicity Add your thoughts at inward/outward This message is a daily service of inward/outward. Was this message forwarded to you? Click here to sign up. No longer interested in receiving these readings? Click here to unsubscribe. Having trouble unsubscribing? Email Church of the Saviour Office: churchofthesaviour.office@gmail.com

Daily Meditation: Baptism, the Way to Freedom

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Thursday September 27, 2012    Baptism, the Way to Freedom   When parents have their children baptised they indicate their desire to have their children grow up and live as children of God and brothers or sisters of Jesus, and be guided by the Holy Spirit.   Through birth a child is given to parents; through baptism a child is given to God.  At baptism the parents acknowledge that their parenthood is a participation in God's parenthood, that all fatherhood and motherhood comes from God.  Thus baptism frees the parents from a sense of owning their children.  Children belong to God and are given to the parents to love and care for in God's name.  It is the parents' vocation to welcome their children as honored guests in their home and bring them to the physical, emotional, and spiritual freedom that enables them to leave the home and become parents themselves.  Baptism reminds parents of this vocation and sets children on the path of freedom.     Comment on this Daily Meditation.   Visit our website for inspiration, resources, news, events, community. Text excerpts taken from Bread for the Journey, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, ©1997 HarperSanFrancisco. All Scripture from The Jerusalem Bible ©1966, 1967, and 1968 Darton, Longman & Todd and Doubleday & Co. Inc. Photo by V. Dobson.

Forward this Daily Meditation to a friend! This email was sent to cbgamb@gmail.com, by email_lists@henrinouwen.org Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy. Henri Nouwen Society | PO Box 220522 | St. Louis | MO | 63122 | USA Henri Nouwen Society | John M. Kelly Library, 3rd Fl. | 113 St. Joseph Street | Toronto | ON | M5S 1J4 | Canada

Daily Meditation: Baptism, a Rite of Passage

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Wednesday September 26, 2012     Baptism, a Rite of Passage   Baptism is a rite of passage.  The Jewish people passed through the Red Sea to the Promised Land in the great exodus.  Jesus himself wanted to make this exodus by passing through suffering and death into the house of his heavenly Father.  This was his baptism.  He asked his disciples and now asks us:  "Can you ... be baptised with the baptism with which I shall be baptised?" (Mark 10:38).  When the apostle Paul, therefore, speaks about our baptism, he calls it a baptism into Jesus' death (Romans 6:4).   To be baptised means to make the passage with the people of Israel and with Jesus from slavery to freedom and from death to new life.  It is a commitment to a life in and through Jesus.     Comment on this Daily Meditation.   Visit our website for inspiration, resources, news, events, community. Text excerpts taken from Bread for the Journey, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, ©1997 HarperSanFrancisco. All Scripture from The Jerusalem Bible ©1966, 1967, and 1968 Darton, Longman & Todd and Doubleday & Co. Inc. Photo by V. Dobson.

Forward this Daily Meditation to a friend! This email was sent to cbgamb@gmail.com, by email_lists@henrinouwen.org Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy. Henri Nouwen Society | PO Box 220522 | St. Louis | MO | 63122 | USA Henri Nouwen Society | John M. Kelly Library, 3rd Fl. | 113 St. Joseph Street | Toronto | ON | M5S 1J4 | Canada

Go Apart

Go Apart Richard Rohr The desert is where you go apart from the world order as it is. It's where you simply stop being trapped in the world's addictive patterns. If you are addicted to the world's or your own patterns, you really need to go apart; otherwise you'll never stop sleepwalking.... What Jesus is talking about, first and foremost, is how do you enter into the real Now. Jesus gives us "real eyes" to "realize" where the "Real lies." Source: Jesus' Plan for a New World Add your thoughts at inward/outward This message is a daily service of inward/outward. Was this message forwarded to you? Click here to sign up. No longer interested in receiving these readings? Click here to unsubscribe. Having trouble unsubscribing? Email Church of the Saviour Office: churchofthesaviour.office@gmail.com

How We See Life

How We See Life Howard Thurman Life is seen as being something to conquer, to struggle with and against. Life is the enemy. It is not be embraced, to be lived. Hence we creep through our days, reacting to our world as if our faith were in magic, rather than in life. [Humans] must experience life; they must feel it run through their whole being that life belongs to them and they to life.... The test of life is to be found in the amount of pain, of frustration, they can absorb without spoiling their joy in living. To keep alive an original sense of aliveness is to know that life is its own restraint and a [human] is able to stand anything that life can do. Source: The Inward Journey Add your thoughts at inward/outward This message is a daily service of inward/outward. Was this message forwarded to you? Click here to sign up. No longer interested in receiving these readings? Click here to unsubscribe. Having trouble unsubscribing? Email Church of the Saviour Office: churchofthesaviour.office@gmail.com

Daily Meditation: Baptism: Becoming Children of the Light

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Tuesday September 25, 2012    Baptism:  Becoming Children of the Light   When Jesus appears for the last time to his disciples, he sends them out into the world saying:  "Go, ... make disciples of all nations;  baptise them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit"  (Matthew 28:19).   Jesus offers us baptism as the way to enter into communion with God, Father, Son, and Spirit, and to live our lives as God's beloved children.  Through baptism we say no to the world.  We declare that we no longer want to remain children of the darkness but want to become children of the light, God's children.   We do not want to escape the world, but we want to live in it without belonging to it.  That is what baptism enables us to do.     Comment on this Daily Meditation.   Visit our website for inspiration, resources, news, events, community. Text excerpts taken from Bread for the Journey, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, ©1997 HarperSanFrancisco. All Scripture from The Jerusalem Bible ©1966, 1967, and 1968 Darton, Longman & Todd and Doubleday & Co. Inc. Photo by V. Dobson.

Forward this Daily Meditation to a friend! This email was sent to cbgamb@gmail.com, by email_lists@henrinouwen.org Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy. Henri Nouwen Society | PO Box 220522 | St. Louis | MO | 63122 | USA Henri Nouwen Society | John M. Kelly Library, 3rd Fl. | 113 St. Joseph Street | Toronto | ON | M5S 1J4 | Canada

In the Present

In the Present Bonnie Thurston Many of us, at least internally, do not live in the here-and-now. We are consumed with what was or with what might be. A great deal of the spiritual anguish we experience is because we are not content to be, to live in the present. We are of the present, but not in it. It is by attentiveness in the present moment that we encounter God. Source: To Everything a Season: A Spirituality of Time Add your thoughts at inward/outward This message is a daily service of inward/outward. Was this message forwarded to you? Click here to sign up. No longer interested in receiving these readings? Click here to unsubscribe. Having trouble unsubscribing? Email Church of the Saviour Office: churchofthesaviour.office@gmail.com

Daily Meditation: Baptism and Eucharist

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Monday September 24, 2012     Baptism and Eucharist   Sacraments are very specific events in which God touches us through creation and transforms us into living Christs.  The two main sacraments are baptism and the Eucharist.  In baptism water is the way to transformation.  In the Eucharist it is bread and wine.  The most ordinary things in life - water, bread, and wine - become the sacred way by which God comes to us.   These sacraments are actual events.  Water, bread, and wine are not simple reminders of God's love;  they bring God to us.  In baptism we are set free from the slavery of sin and dressed with Christ.  In the Eucharist, Christ himself becomes our food and drink.     Comment on this Daily Meditation.   Visit our website for inspiration, resources, news, events, community. Text excerpts taken from Bread for the Journey, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, ©1997 HarperSanFrancisco. All Scripture from The Jerusalem Bible ©1966, 1967, and 1968 Darton, Longman & Todd and Doubleday & Co. Inc. Photo by V. Dobson.

Forward this Daily Meditation to a friend! This email was sent to cbgamb@gmail.com, by email_lists@henrinouwen.org Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy. Henri Nouwen Society | PO Box 220522 | St. Louis | MO | 63122 | USA Henri Nouwen Society | John M. Kelly Library, 3rd Fl. | 113 St. Joseph Street | Toronto | ON | M5S 1J4 | Canada

Daily Meditation: The Sacredness of God's Handiwork

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Sunday September 23, 2012    The Sacredness of God's Handiwork   How do we live in creation?  Do we relate to it as a place full of "things" we can use for whatever need we want to fulfill and whatever goal we wish to accomplish?   Or do we see creation first of all as a sacramental reality, a sacred space where God reveals to us the immense beauty of the Divine?   As long as we only use creation, we cannot recognise its sacredness because we are approaching it as if we are its owners.  But when we relate to all that surrounds us as created by the same God who created us and as the place where God appears to us and calls us to worship and adoration, then we are able to recognise the sacred quality of all God's handiwork.     Comment on this Daily Meditation.   Visit our website for inspiration, resources, news, events, community. Text excerpts taken from Bread for the Journey, by Henri J.M. Nouwen, ©1997 HarperSanFrancisco. All Scripture from The Jerusalem Bible ©1966, 1967, and 1968 Darton, Longman & Todd and Doubleday & Co. Inc. Photo by V. Dobson.

Forward this Daily Meditation to a friend! This email was sent to cbgamb@gmail.com, by email_lists@henrinouwen.org Update Profile/Email Address | Instant removal with SafeUnsubscribe™ | Privacy Policy. Henri Nouwen Society | PO Box 220522 | St. Louis | MO | 63122 | USA Henri Nouwen Society | John M. Kelly Library, 3rd Fl. | 113 St. Joseph Street | Toronto | ON | M5S 1J4 | Canada