Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them,
         and a tongue rested on each of them.
                  —Acts 2.3

Not little candles,
but furious furnaces,
volcanoes of love,
burning as in you right now,
every heartbeat God’s arson of the soul,
each breath the Spirit’s inner hurricane
afire with mercy,
a dynamo powerful enough
to blow you out into the world
and do miracles.
Trust this when you feel small and fragile,
the flaming sun within.

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

   —June 5, 2019

Walking by the sea
you listen to the language of the waves,
you wish you knew what they were saying,
their foreign tongue,
sonorous, untranslated,
the sibilants so smoothly pronounced,
their vowels so nuanced,
priestly chants, blessings, perhaps,
and for you, for you.

Standing still in woods,
the wind in trees is a different dialect,
the accents in other places,
but prayers, you are sure,
of the same liturgy,
you want to pray the prayer.

Birdsong, unexpected, on a city street,
desert quiet, deep as sleep,
the tick of a patient clock,
the beat of your heart,
a voice without language
in the swaying of subway riders,
beloved, and what they mean,
voice without words that comes
and goes like prayer, like dreams.
The voice in the pure song of silence.

Sometimes, as with a kiss,
you needn’t know the words,
only that you are being spoken to.

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

    —June 4, 2019

Beloved,
you are the breathing
that breathed in me me through the night.
You are the darkness that held me in its secrets,
the dream that whispered in my unknowing,
disappearing into me like a breath.
You are the light that prepared yourself before me,
mother’s arms that received me at my morning birth.
You are the sun that awakens me,
the dawn that rises in me, always rising.
You are the day that unfolds before me,
your becoming my welcome, your living my ground,
your grace my one hope for this day.
Morning God, the world opens its eye
and I wake to you, given, and new.
May I wake to you all this holy day
and be your light unfolding.

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

   —June 3, 2019

         We have been buried with Christ by baptism into death,
         so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of God,
         so we too might walk in newness of life.
                  —Romans 6.4

God, take, me, all of me.
Let the “me” to which I’ve been clinging die.
Bury me in your love,
six feet under in your grace.
Your living heart be my grave.
All my schemes and beliefs,
my triumphs and failures, all gone.
All my powers ended,
my powerlessness a nothing.

Then in the darkness, the silence,
let there be light.
Let a new Creation arise,
and let it be me.
Let me be something you are creating,
moment by moment,
by your Word alone,
breathing your Spirit breath by breath,
risen,
new,
yours.

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

—May 30, 2019

         God raised Christ from the dead
         and seated Christ at God’s right hand in the heavenly places,
         far above all rule and authority and power and dominion.
                  —Ephesians 1.20-21

Think Higher Power… then go higher than that.
Imagine the embodiment of God’s love,
the divine Presence, God’s intimacy,
as the absolute fundament of Creation.
The love that begets you, that walks with you,
the tenderness that feels your wounds and dries your tears,
the noble courage that sees the magnificent in you,
the beauty that unfolds in you as in lilacs and galaxies,
that love that will die for you, and does, over and over,
that love—as the most powerful thing in the universe.
Imagine all our little tragedies gathered up
into those gentle, immense arms,
every sin and every triumph blessed,
every child and every tyrant held
in those tender, wounded hands.
The All of everything, the Is of the universe,
the One of infinite belovedness,
Christ, your Heavenly Lover,
above all and including all
and redeeming all of it. All of it.
Offer wonder, praise and trust.

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

   —May 30, Ascension Day, 2019

         He withdrew from them and was carried up into heaven.
                           —Luke 24.51

How dare he?
Just up and leave?
How hard to admit:
Christ is not ours.
There is an else-ness to them,
a beyondness we can’t comprehend.
The Anointed One belongs to something greater,
and is not ours.
For a time they have made themselves
as small as he could,
but now we see how infinite the Beloved is.
And if we have listened to what he said
while he walked among us so we could hear,
we would see this in every soul,
for none is apart from this whole.

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

—May 29, 2019

         I ask …that they may all be one.
         As you, Father, are in me and I am in you,
         may they also be in us…
                  —John 17.20, 21

We are one.
It is not our choice.
Our unity is not opinion
or willingness to get along.
It is God’s doing, not ours.
There is only one thing,
one Creation, one humanity,
and we are all part of it.
We are all members of one body,
all fingers of the same hand,
like it or not.
Our choice is to honor or dishonor
people who are part of ourselves.
We needn’t worship together,
vote alike, agree or strive in parallel;
we may oppose each other.
But we do so as equals, as one,
joined in the flesh of creation,
in the oneness of Spirit.
Even members of the Holy Trinity
may see things differently.
We are in Christ, by God’s will,
and haven’t the power to be otherwise.
We are One.
May we live as one.

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

   —May 28, 2019

Today I give thanks for all those
who have nonviolently given their lives
for the sake of peace,
who have suffered and sacrificed and even died
for the sake of justice and healing.
I give thanks for those who suffered
for the underground railroad,
for the cause of unions, for women’s suffrage, in the civil rights movement,
In antiwar and environmental work.
For those who have sacrificed, suffered and died
without weapons in their hands
I give thanks, and honor their service.
And I pray that we all may emulate their courage, 
their vision and their hearts of peace, 
and give ourselves in the cause of justice. 
May God bless not only the great sacrifices 
but every Little step we take 
for the sake of the mending of the world. 

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

— May 27, 2019

There are times, beholding the wounds of the world,
we feel inadequate. We haven’t dome enough.
Yes, there are those who give their blood on the ramparts,
who are tireless in their work for justice and healing.
It is only together that we are they.
Remember you are not asked to save the world,
or even a single creature.
You are asked to listen,
to hear what you are called to do,
great or small,
and to do that.

In the stone wall I walk past every morning
there are small stones
that hold the great ones in place.

In the chorus you only sing one part
but when you change your note
you change the whole chord.

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

      —May 24, 2019

         When Jesus saw him lying there
         and knew that he had been there a long time,
         he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”
                  —John 5.6

Oh, God, so many things I pray for
I don’t really want.
I pretend I’m fine.

Help me to want your will.
Help me to want to be healed.
I renounce my excuses, all of them.

Loosen my grip on what I cling to.
Heal my fear of being changed,
and what that would look like.
Remove the shortcomings
I have grown to rely on.
Give me grace to surrender,
to allow.

God, do not listen to my loudest voice
but the quiet one
that will turn my will over to you.

Yes. I want to be made well.

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

   —May 23, 2019