$3 Worth of God

$3 Worth of God Wilbur Rees I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please, not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please. Source: Leadership, Vol. 4, No. 1 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: Focusing on the Poor

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Wednesday October 31, 2012       Focusing on the Poor   Like every human organization the Church is constantly in danger of corruption.  As soon as power and wealth come to the Church, manipulation, exploitation, misuse of influence, and outright corruption are not far away.   How do we prevent corruption in the Church? The answer is clear:  by focusing on the poor.  The poor make the Church faithful to its vocation.  When the Church is no longer a church for the poor, it loses its spiritual identity.  It gets caught up in disagreements, jealousy, power games, and pettiness.  Paul says,  "God has composed the body so that greater dignity is given to the parts which were without it, and so that there may not be disagreements inside the body but each part may be equally concerned for all the others" (1 Corinthians 12:24-25).  This is the true vision.  The poor are given to the Church so that the Church as the body of Christ can be and remain a place of mutual concern, love, and peace.     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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At God's Pace

At God's Pace Evelyn Underhill There is no real occasion for tumult, strain, conflict, anxiety, once we have reached the living conviction that God is All. All takes place within God. God alone matters; God alone is. Our spiritual life is God's affair, because whatever we may think to the contrary, it is really produced by God's steady attraction and our humble and self-forgetful response to it. It consists in being drawn, at God's pace and in God's way, to the place where God wants us to be. Source: The Soul's Delight 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: The Weakest in the Center

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Tuesday October 30, 2012      The Weakest in the Center   The most honored parts of the body are not the head or the hands, which lead and control.  The most important parts are the least presentable parts. That's the mystery of the Church.  As a people called out of oppression to freedom, we must recognize that it is the weakest among us - the elderly, the small children, the handicapped, the mentally ill, the hungry and sick - who form the real center.  Paul says,  "It is the parts of the body which we consider least dignified, that we surround with the greatest dignity"  (1 Corinthians 12:23).   The Church as the people of God can truly embody the living Christ among us only when the poor remain its most treasured part.  Care for the poor, therefore, is much more than Christian charity.  It is the essence of being the body of Christ.     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

Spread Your Spirit

Spread Your Spirit Annie Dillard I cannot cause light; the most I can do is try to put myself in the path of its beam. It is possible, in deep space, to sail on solar wind. Light, be it particle or wave, has force: you rig a giant sail and go. The secret of seeing is to sail on solar wind. Hone and spread your spirit till you yourself are a sail, whetted, translucent, broadside to the merest puff. Source: Pilgrim at Tinker Creek 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: One Body with Many Parts

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Monday October 29, 2012      One Body with Many Parts   The Church is one body.  Paul writes,  "We were baptised into one body in a single Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:13).  But this one body has many parts.  As Paul says, "If they were all the same part, how could it be a body?  As it is, the parts are many but the body is one" (1 Corinthians 12:19).  Not everyone can be everything.  Often we expect one member of the body to fulfill a task that belongs to others.  But the hand cannot be asked to see nor the eye to hear.   Together we are Christ's body, each of us with a part to play in the whole (see 1 Corinthians 12:27).  Let's be grateful for our limited but real part in the body.     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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Daily Meditation: Our Spiritual Leaders

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Sunday October 28, 2012     Our Spiritual Leaders   The Church as the body of Christ has many faces.  The Church prays and worships.  It speaks words of instruction and healing, cleanses us from our sins, invites us to the table of the Lord, binds us together in a covenant of love, sends us out to minister, anoints us when we are sick or dying, and accompanies us in our search for meaning and our daily need for support.   All these faces might not come to us from those we look up to as our leaders.  But when we live our lives with a simple trust that Jesus comes to us in our Church, we will see the Church's ministry in places and in faces where we least expect it.   If we truly love Jesus, Jesus will send us the people to give us what we most need.  And they are our spiritual leaders.     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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Let Go of Everything But God

Let Go of Everything But God Howard Thurman I must let go. For so long I have held to the habit of holding on. Even my muscles Are tense; deeply fearful are they Of relaxing lest they fall away from their place. I cling clutchingly to my friends Lest I lose them. I live under the shadow of being supplanted by another. I cling to my money, not so much By a wise economy and a thoughtful spending But by a sense of possession that makes me depend upon it for strength. I must let go-- Deep at the core of me I must have a sense of freedom - A sure awareness of detachment - of relaxation. I must let go of everything. I must let go of pride. But-- What am I saying? Is there not a sense of pride That supports and sustains all achievement, Even the essential dignity of my own personality? It may be that I must let go My dependence upon triumphing over my fellows, which seems To give me a sense of security in their midst. I cringe from my pain; I do not relish The struggle of life but I do not want to let go Because the hurt and the tension of contest feed The springs of my pride. They make me deeply aware. But I must let go of everything. I must let go of everything but God. But God--May it not be That God is in all the things to which I cling? That may be the hidden reason for my clinging. It is all very puzzling indeed. When I say "I must let go of everything but God" What is my meaning? I must relax my hold on everything that dulls my sense of Him, That comes between me and the inner awareness of His Presence Pervading my life and glorifying All the common ways with wonderful wonder. "Teach me, O God, how to free myself of dearest possessions, So that in my trust I shall find restored to me All I need to walk in Thy path and to fulfill Thy will. Let me know Thee for myself that I may not be satisfied With aught that is less." Source: Deep Is the Hunger 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: Forgiving the Church

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Saturday October 27, 2012    Forgiving the Church   When we have been wounded by the Church, our temptation is to reject it.   But when we reject the Church it becomes very hard for us to keep in touch with the living Christ.  When we say,  "I love Jesus, but I hate the Church," we end up losing not only the Church but Jesus too.  The challenge is to forgive the Church.  This challenge is especially great because the Church seldom asks us for forgiveness, at least not officially.  But the Church as an often fallible human organization needs our forgiveness, while the Church as the living Christ among us continues to offer us forgiveness.      It is important to think about the Church not as "over there" but as a community of struggling, weak people of whom we are part and in whom we meet our Lord and Redeemer.     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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Christ Visible

Christ Visible Rumi A mouse and a frog meet every morning on the river bank. They sit on the ground and talk. Each morning, the second they see each other, they open easily, telling stories and dreams and secrets, empty of any fear or suspicious holding back. To watch and listen to those two is to understand how, as it's written, sometimes when two beings come together, Christ becomes visible. Source: The Essential Rumi, translated by Coleman Barks 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: The Authority of Compassion

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Friday October 26, 2012     The Authority of Compassion   The Church often wounds us deeply.  People with religious authority often wound us by their words, attitudes, and demands.  Precisely because our religion brings us in touch with the questions of life and death, our religious sensibilities can get hurt most easily.   Ministers and priests seldom fully realize how a critical remark, a gesture of rejection, or an act of impatience can be remembered for life by those to whom it is directed.   There is such an enormous hunger for meaning in life, for comfort and consolation, for forgiveness and reconciliation, for restoration and healing, that anyone who has any authority in the Church should constantly be reminded that the best word to characterize religious authority is compassion.   Let's keep looking at Jesus whose authority was expressed in compassion.     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

An Army of Lovers

An Army of Lovers Shane Claiborne Lovers are hard to come by. And I think that's what our world is desperately in need of--lovers, people who are building deep, genuine relationships with fellow strugglers along the way, and who actually know the faces of the people behind the issues they are concerned about. We are trying to raise up an army not simply of street activists but of lovers--a community of people who have fallen desperately in love with God and with suffering people, and who allow those relationships to disturb and transform them. Source: The Irresistible Revolution 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: Meeting Christ in the Church

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Thursday October 25, 2012     Meeting Christ in the Church   Loving the Church does not require romantic emotions.  It requires the will to see the living Christ among his people and to love them as we want to love Christ himself.   This is true not only for the "little" people - the poor, the oppressed, the forgotten - but also for the "big" people who exercise authority in the Church.   To love the Church means to be willing to meet Jesus wherever we go in the Church.  This love doesn't mean agreeing with or approving of everyone's ideas or behavior.  On the contrary, it can call us to confront those who hide Christ from us.  But whether we confront or affirm, criticize or praise, we can only become fruitful when our words and actions come from hearts that love the Church.     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

What Discipleship is All About

What Discipleship is All About Robert Morneau God's table is large, as large as creation. All are invited, all are to have access to the necessity of food and the miracle of love. Both are essential to the fullness of life. Without food, the body languishes and dies; without love, our souls wither and are filled with despair. The many leftovers in our lives? What are they and who will get them? So many people can live off our leavings if we would only share. This is hardly sufficient. Disciples of Christ give abundantly in imitation of the master who gave His very self. Source: Ashes to Easter 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: Loving the Church

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Wednesday October 24, 2012    Loving the Church   Loving the Church often seems close to impossible.  Still, we must keep reminding ourselves that all people in the Church - whether powerful or powerless,  conservative or progressive, tolerant or fanatic - belong to that long line of witnesses moving through this valley of tears, singing songs of praise and thanksgiving, listening to the voice of their Lord, and eating together from the bread that keeps multiplying as it is shared.  When we remember that, we may be able to say,  "I love the Church, and I am glad to belong to it."   Loving the Church is our sacred duty.   Without a true love for the Church, we cannot live in it in joy and peace.  And without a true love for the Church, we cannot call people to it.     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