Earth of me, womb of me, whole of my life,
vast swirling winds of my lungs,
wide heaving seas of my blood,
mountains of my heart,
and my imagination’ deserts, steppes and jungles,
greening branches of my fingers,
all you interwoven species of me,
living beings unseen in my ocean depths —
praise! Praise the hand that makes you,
gives you life and sends you forth each day.

For your deep generosity, life overflowing,
beauty astounding and close-woven love
I thank you! I praise you! I sing you! I live!

I am your spring, your sprout, your blossom,
I am your breathing, your dreaming, your hope;
of your billowing, your billions, your teeming,
I am one. We are one. We are one.

Earth of us, river and grasses and stone,
teach us your patience, your giving, your faith,
teach us to flourish, to nourish, to flow,
with your courage to send out the tendrils of love,
the rivers and currents and jet streams of blessing,
to blossom, audacious, to soak up your sun,
to give and receive life, to be one, to be one.

Earth of us, home of us, whole of us and more,
may we live with reverence, act with care,
evolve with grace, be wounded and heal,
and in all our living praise you, serve you,
and show with abundant and manifold glory
the grace of the One who makes us,
who makes us for each other, and so well,
with such tender and intricate wonder and love.
Praise!

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

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Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

         
         My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.
                  — John 10.27

Listen.
In the temple, at the appointed time—
that’s just practice.
Open the ear of your heart
and listen for the Beloved’s voice
in silence, in the street, under the noise,
in all the voices, in what they never say.
Each moment,
the Beloved wants to speak with you.

                  •

No stranger holds the keys to your life,
no official reads a list.
The Beloved knows you,
fits in your skin,
feels what it’s like,
knows the why and how.
Loves that, not who you could have been.
Listen to the One who knows you.

                  •

Learn to let the Beloved lead you dancing.
Trust the gentle touch, the guiding embrace,
the leading nudge.
Don’t be afraid to leave anything behind
to stay with One who holds your life—
anything.
You will always be waking up in heaven,
always coming home
to yourself,
crazy with love.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
Since the Boston Marathon bombing, people around here have been more gentle, respectful and attentive than usual. Even Boston traffic is oddly kindhearted. We see this after large traumas like 9/11, Hurricane Sandy, Newtown: following a serious tragedy we’re not only a bit shaken, and not just determined to keep calm and carry on. We’ve also been opened up. We’re more human, more true to ourselves. We’ve entered into the world’s pain. We’ve been made aware that we’re fragile beings, that everyone we meet is likely to have suffered— and also that our choices make a difference, and that we can make this world better in small acts of kindness. For a moment, sometimes wrapped in the mantle of heroism — “We won’t let them win, we’ll be strong”— we are moved to reveal who we most deeply are: good, kind, hopeful people.

Of course it will wear off. We’ll become tough and self-centered again soon enough. Our resolve to “never forget” will degrade into mere bitterness or politics. But those of us who live in the radiant shadow of the cross, who follow the Lamb who Was Slaughtered, cannot forget — not in resentment, but in repentance. This is what it means to be “washed in the blood of the lamb.” Tending to the victims of violence, we have been changed. Our eyes have been opened to people’s pain. A great power within us, the divine urge to heal, has taken over us. We have seen God in the suffering, we have faced our own instinct to hurt others, and we have witnessed the consequences of our judgment and selfishness; and we have also experienced the power of compassion, and we have seen God’s amazing forgiveness and healing even before the smoke cleared. We know that the Spirit of this life is love, our true being is goodness, and every person in this world is God’s tender Beloved, worthy of our most heroic care. From now on, if there is blood on our hands it will be because we have rushed in to heal, not to exert our will.

Every once in a while we are given the chance to see: this is who we really are after all, who we are created to be. This is the purpose of our life. We are called to be compassionate, trusting the power of love over fear, with a heightened awareness of others and sensitivity to their suffering and their nobility. So we pray not to “carry on as usual,” but to be changed, to let our old lives of self-serving anxiety die, and to be raised to lives of pure love and hope. We become, each in our own way, part of the healing of the world. It is happening, even now.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         

When the bomb goes off
and people flee in terror
seeking safety and shelter
there are those who run
against the crowd, toward
the trauma, the screams,
with healing in their hands,
with peace and presence,
like Jesus, heading for
the lepers, the tortured,
the cross, mindful not of
self but the whole of us,
and like his followers,
attentive to this world
and those about us,
going always unafraid
toward the pain,
calmly entering
the gaping hole.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
After yesterday’s Boston Marathon bombings, people around the world are praying for this city, and the people affected by the violence. But don’t stop there: pray for the whole world. After all, it’s really the world’s marathon. I’ve been there near the finish line, surrounded by people of every nation. As the winner runs by, a crowd breaks out in the national anthem—of Kenya. I’m sure you noticed all the international flags in the news videos. It’s the whole world’s race. And today we’re a part of the whole world’s pain. We share the trauma and grief that much of the world lives in every day. This is not Boston’s unique pain. It is everyone’s. Pray for the the healing of the world.

People say, “Be strong.” We will, yes, we will. But the world does not need strength. What the world needs is kindness. The world needs people who have the courage to be gentle, even when those around them are full of rage and despair and violence, who refuse to join the world’s bitterness. The world needs people who choose love over fear. That’s the only thing that will actually change the world.

It’s not easy. Love is not quick, and does not produce immediate results. It’s a marathon. It takes dedication and training and a lot of commitment. It’s not for the faint-hearted. As Gandhi said, if you are too cowardly to be nonviolent, by all means take up arms to fight for justice. Love takes guts. It takes faith, confidence that a greater love is at work even when we cannot see it. And it takes patience, like a marathon — the willingness to go the distance, to keep at it when your body cries, “Quit!,” when your mind thinks of better things to do, when pain and weariness make you want to give up —it takes guts to keep going anyway. The Via Dolorsa is the toughest race. To share in the world’s pain and sadness, and still keep up hope and love — that is the world’s oldest marathon. The good news that we do not run alone. Nor do we run on our own energy: we are moved by the desire of God for the healing of the world.

Pray for those who are in pain today. Pray for the world, and for each of us, for the spirit of peace, for the courage to love in the face of fear and be gentle in the face of violence, for the guts to be part of the mending of the world. Pray for those who are hurting, for those who are afraid, for those who are in sorrow. Pray for all of us, that we may make gentle this wounded world. Even now the Lamb of God is moving among us, never giving up, keeping on with unflagging love and tenderness. Take heart, breathe deeply, and keep going.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

A Spring blessing

May the mystery of spring unfold in you:
the illimitable vigor of life rise up in you,

the joy of tiny green things enlighten you,
the patience of bare branches assure you,

the hope of bird songs guide you,
the confidence of migrating birds sustain you,

the flowing of sap invigorate you,
the unfurling of leaves open your heart,

the rising of shoots encourage you,
the opening of blossoms show you,

the work of insects serve you,
the flowing of water bless you,

the movement of sun and earth beckon you,
the life within protect you.

May the One who is Spring
give you life and beauty

and flourish in you
with splendor and grace.

________________

And for my friends in the Southern Hemisphere:

May God give you courage to go your way
when others go another,

to be true to the energy of life within you
and not surrender to the words of others,

to be patient when what you desire is afar,
knowing that what you most need you already have.

And may you trust that in all seasons
life is rising within you, powerful and new.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

 

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com

 

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

.

Defeated, burdened by
the dark repeating,
the dead weight of finality,
abandoned in our losses,
power failure,
collapse of choice,
we suddenly grew old and fruitless.
The door closed to the place
to begin again.
Grave and determined,
we went back
and threw our nets.
In the narrow night
we caught nothing.

Then —
“Children.”

Who but the Beloved
would call us that,
awaken such a dawn?

Who else would name our void?
Once again we are turned,
shown an unaccustomed way,
welcomed to another side
where something opens up
and miracles are brought
from deep beneath us— too much
magnificence for us
alone, too much.
Our bodies are startled.

A voice of recognition—
not from our head but another—
sings out, the alarm
of knowing what we know.
We put on white robes
and throw ourselves
into the baptismal deep.

On the shore — is this the near
one now, or far? —
you give us once again this
self of you, this whole, this you.
You break our fast with wonder.
We feast, astonished
from our hands,
yet from beyond.
We offer what we have been given,
this multiplying banquet.

How can we not then,
withholding nothing,
even what is not yet given,
feed your sheep?

 

.

 

Deep Blessings
Pastor Steve
______________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail
write to me at unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com.

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.

Saul, breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, was approaching Damascus. Suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” He asked, “Who are you, Lord?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. But get up and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” … Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing…. Ananias laid his hands on Saul and said, “…Be filled with the Holy Spirit.”…. And something like scales fell from his eyes, and his sight was restored…. and he began to proclaim Jesus….
— from Acts 9. 1-20

Beloved, Living, Eternal Presence—
I confess that I make enemies. I judge people, blinding myself to them, treating them not as persons, but as figments of my judgment. I make them into a symbol of what I dread or despise, an embodiment of a fear or memory, a stereotype of something within me that I dislike. Not an individual, not your beloved. But you, O Suffering One, O Holy Despised One, you are my victim. Open my eyes. Let me see you in my victim, my enemy. Let me hear your voice in them. Blind me to my old ways of seeing. Let me be helpless in my separation from others. Cast me onto the care of others. Let me discover that I am one with my enemy. Let me be re-made by being forgiven by those whom I persecute. God of Truth, let the scales fall from my eyes, that by your Holy Spirit I may see with reverence and proclaim your love. By your love, may I not oppose my enemies, but tend your lambs.
Amen.

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

 

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Dearly Beloved,

Grace and Peace to you.

 

Awed by power,
inspired by glory,
drawn by wonder,
I willingly follow.

But forgetful, distracted,
senseless, afraid,
I fall behind, I wander,
I withdraw.

Yet you will not command,
only beckon.

The glory of this world
is not given merely for my pleasure.
The tender love,
the generous presence,
the costly forgiveness,
the miraculous feast—
it is the gracious belt around me
leading me
beyond my choosing.

.

.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve
______________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
www.unfoldinglight.net

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail,
write to me at unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com.

Dearly Beloved,
Grace and Peace to you.
         
         
The woods this morning didn’t look any different from autumn: trees bare, grass brown, dead leaves on muddy ground. But spring is happening. The woods were thick with bird song. I saw the beaver who hides in the brook. I came upon a little marsh where some little critter was singing away, a single frog proclaiming its news. Others joined in, in a great chorus of peeping and screeching. I couldn’t see any of them. I stood there a long time and looked, but I couldn’t find one. I came nearer—and of course they all stopped. They knew I was there. And though I could not see them, I knew they were there.

Most of what goes on in this world is unseen. Planets orbit, flocks migrate, cells and organs work in the darkness. And love does its work. Skeptics look for proof of God, as if God were Bigfoot, as if The Holy One were any more provable than love or humor, as if paparazzi could somehow catch Spirit taking out the trash. No, God is The Unseen One. The closer we come the more there is only mystery. Fools never realize that when we stop knowing and can only wonder, we are seeing God.

We learn to tune our hearts to the invisible, to see with our souls, not just our eyes, to know that we live in a world and in the company of a Presence whose power and grace so far exceeds our capacity to know or see or understand that all we can do is wonder and trust. The world sings its song. God is at work. We come near, and listen with gratitude, and wonder and trust.

Deep Blessings,
Pastor Steve

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

To subscribe to Unfolding Light by daily e-mail write to unfoldinglight8(at)hotmail.com