Unfolding Light

We think of them as nobody,
whoever they are
we don’t want to see.
They are invisible,
the one at the intersection
with the ragged cardboard sign,
or off in some field far away
picking our produce.
Magicians we are,
able to make them disappear
right before our eyes.

Sometimes you feel all alone in the universe,
like God doesn’t even know you exist.
But for God to see you,
to see you with love,
who you really are—
giving you the power
to stand tall, to believe in yourself,
to know you are real and worthy and beautiful—
that would be salvation, no?

Imagine the power you have
not to save people’s souls,
but, miracle enough,
to see them.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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You of the Great Breathing In:
           Aahh! We praise you.
You of the Great Breathing Out:
           Yes! We thank you.
You who swirl us in your interstellar dust:
           Alleluia! We glorify you!
You who well up your ocean currents in us:
           behold, we serve you.
Hand of all the world’s great migrations:
           Holy One, we trust you.
You who move in threads beneath the roots:
           Beloved, we reach for you.
You who fruit forth in a million varieties:
           we feast on your grace.
You who spark the Life Force in all things:
           we listen for your voice.
You who speak “Let there be light”:
           let us be light.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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It is as if
you came home and there he was,
a stranger sitting in the room meditating.
At first alarmed, then annoyed,
and then resigned, you let him sit,
because he didn’t seem to be doing any harm,
and there was that light.
You never really knew what he was thinking,
but he was smiling, and the room was warm.
After a while you rearranged
some of the furniture around him.
Then you took most of it out,
except for chairs for the people
you invited over, to sit with him.
Later, in your house full of light and mystified guests,
you hardly noticed that he wasn’t there any more,
his smile on a hundred faces.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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           In the beginning was the Word,
           and the Word was with God,
           and the Word was God.
                       —John 1.1

           In God we live and move and have our being.
                      —Acts 17.28

Love is eternal, and infinite, here before the beginning.
(Sometimes we use the nickname “God.”)
There is nothing beyond or outside of Love.
Love creates the entire universe inside God, inside Love,
since there is nothing outside God.
Love is no mere sentimentality: it creates the Big Bang.
It is gravity, the relatedness of all things.
Every object bends time and space to bring others near.
Love is creating now, in every place and moment.
Even in evil, Love is at work, creating,
allowing new life, new power, new freedom.

Because we live and move and have our being
inside the Body of Love, we live with hope and courage,
with gratitude and trust.
We are in awe that we are being created every moment.
We love every other being that is one with us in this Body:
friend and enemy, people and salamanders, wind and wave.
To live with faith is to remember we belong,
to rejoice, and to love boldly,
for the Love in which and by which we live
is infinite and powerful, and beautiful.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Sometimes I feel foreboding,
as if a dragon is about to consume me:
my failure or inadequacy, or my guilt.
But the dragon is no danger—
not to be slain, no, not even tamed:
but befriended.
There is no reason to fear,
only grace to receive.
Dragon, come sit, and speak to me.

________________
                Weather Report

Wild,
as storms of imagined high pressure
collide with your acceptable front.
Expect rogue waves of fear and shame,
tidal surges of responsibility,
and hundred-year floods of despair.
And also monsters and flesh-eating aliens,
all imaginary.
Meanwhile the peace of the real world will abide
till you come out again.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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Sometimes I feel foreboding,
as if a dragon is about to consume me:
my failure or inadequacy, or my guilt.
But the dragon is no danger—
not to be slain, no, not even tamed:
but befriended.
There is no reason to fear,
only grace to receive.
Dragon, come sit, and speak to me.

________________
Weather Report

Wild,
as storms of imagined high pressure
collide with your acceptable front.
Expect rogue waves of fear and shame,
tidal surges of responsibility,
and hundred-year floods of despair.
And also monsters and flesh-eating aliens,
all imaginary.
Meanwhile the peace of the real world will abide
till you come out again.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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           “Those who want to save their life will lose it,
           and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.”
                       —Matthew 16.25

No part of a body
can survive
outside the body.

A member of the Body of Christ,
I am most alive not as myself alone
but as a part of the whole.

Alone I am only a mass of flesh,
but as a member, I am alive
with the whole Body’s life.

I when I lose my singular life
I gain our shared life—
true, and deep, and infinite.

Breath prayer:
                         Not I    . . .     but Christ

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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In the curling incense smoke of his accent
the guide says never mind all the other sites
(and there is competition from many sites, in many accents),
this is Jesus’ real Tomb, the actual one, the holiest place in Jerusalem.
But of course how can we know? It was 2000 years ago,
and this isn’t very holy, encrusted with lamps and sconces
that are trying too hard, and enough silver and gold
to be nothing like where they would lay him,
bejeweled with cheapness, with tourists, our tittering selfies,
our marketplace of beliefs and smug attempts at wonder.
Hardly a holy place, I’d say. A curiosity for tourists.
Through the clatter and clutter of us all comes a woman
in a brown sweater carrying two shopping bags,
up the aisle to the railing. She kneels and prays.
Despite all our chatter, she prays. She is no saint;
she’s just one in a long line of people who come here
to pray, who have been coming here for centuries, to pray.
        Suddenly I want to take off my shoes.
        This is indeed holy ground.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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O Holy One, your Word has been from the beginning,
and all things have been created through your Word.
You have spoken us into being, the words of your love.
We give thanks that you are not a retired creator,
but still creating: galaxies still form; life emerges;
varieties evolve, all by your grace.
All of us, humans and mountains, whales and stars,
are one in this mysterious work of Creation.
We honor you by singing in this great chorus,
dancing in this sacred dance, belonging in this holy Body.
By your Spirit heighten our awe; deepen our reverence;
tune our harmony with your sacred work.
We who are your handiwork, your art, your creating,
praise you in our being; we reveal you in our beauty;
and we serve you by serving this Creation,
that the Body of Christ may be whole,
and flourish with abundant life.
Amen.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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           Jesus began to show his disciples
          that he must be killed.
          Peter took him aside
          and said, “God forbid it, Boss!
          This must never happen to you.”
                       —from Matthew 16.21-22

Oh, God, how we want to protect you,
to defend your name from being sullied,
prevent all ridicule, and above all,
assure that you or your Chosen One
should never suffer.

But you are the Suffering One,
who even in creation
had to carve out room in your own self
(being infinite, there was nowhere else),
you who love us perfectly
and so guarantee yourself heartache.
What we do to the least we do to you,
so you are daily judged, slaughtered,
trafficked, abused.

When we cry out it is not against you, but ourselves.
It is not you but we who must do the forbidding,
must rise up against unjust suffering,
not aside, but in the square.
This is the scandal of the cross:
you will not forbid. It is in our hands.

__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net
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