If we have died with him,
           we will also live with him
                           —2 Timothy 2.11

Your ego is always calculating:
“What’s me, what’s not, how do I protect what’s me?”
That’s handy. Keeps us from stepping out into traffic.
But it’s purely self-centered, the opposite of love.
To love you’ve got to let go of what the ego wants.
Which feels like dying.
Die anyway.


           God of Love,
           let my selfish desires perish
           in your perfect love,
           so that I too may love.
           Let my little “self” die
           and Christ live in me.


Breath prayer:
                      Die … and live

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

Spirit of God,
           breathe in me.
Be my breathing,
           that I may breathe deeply of life.
Breathing in, may the wind of your earth enter me
           and become me,
the gift of life
           transformed into my cells.
Breathing out may I breathe
           your grace and your peace.
In your grace
           breathe me out into the world.
Breathe in my speaking,
           that I may speak truth.
Breathe in my singing
           that I may sing joy.
Breathe in my silence,
           that I may listen deeply.
Breathe in my walking,
           that I may go in peace.
Breathe in my dying,
           that I myself may be your breath
breathed out into the Mystery,
           in peace, breathing peace.

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

           One of them, when he saw that he was healed,
           turned back, praising God with a loud voice.
                           —Luke 17.15

Thank you, God, for all the ways I have been healed.
For health in my flesh, the miraculous way
          my body knows how to heal itself.
For your healing of my self-esteem,
          the gift to see myself whole, as you see me.
For the renewal of my relationship with you,
         gratitude where once there was doubt.
For the healing of my hope,
         trust where once there was despair.
For the restoration of relationships,
        forgiveness where there was brokenness.
For the healing of community,
         inclusion where there was division.For the mending of the world,
   where, whether there be disease or not,
           and people able-bodied or not,
           whether there be yet justice or still injustice,
all shall be well,
            and all manner of things shall be well.

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

           “Were not ten made clean?
           But the other nine, where are they?
           Was none of them found to return and give praise to God
           except this foreigner?”
                           —Luke 17.17-18

Gratitude begins
where entitlement leaves off.

Gratitude is not a feeling;
it’s a practice.

First be grateful,
then see what you receive.

The more you practice gratitude for the little things
the more you experience life as an unexpected gift.

Keep this prayer always in your heart:
“For what I am about to receive, thank you.”

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

Holy One,
in the storm of my daily life
           be my calm.
In the drought of my despair
           be the rain of hope.
In the earthquake of my emotions
           be my steady ground.
In the forest fires of my fear
           be my safe place.
In the flood of anger around me
           be my high ground.
In all of life’s uncertainties
           you are my sure and certain thing.
I thank you. I trust you.
           I give myself to you.



_________________
Weather Report

Threatening,
as rapidly changing conditions
and the breakdown of a weak front
produce high pressure anxiety areas,
with strong winds of expectation.
Seek shelter.

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

           By the rivers of Babylon—
           there we sat down and there we wept
           when we remembered Zion.
                           —Psalm 137.1


Mourning the world
we had hoped to live in,

we do not surrender our sorrow
but give thanks for it,

knowing our grief is the soil
where seeds of deep joy are rooted.

We release our dreams
to the Love that hopes all things,

trusting the mystery of grace
shall make all things well.

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

           We are just ordinary workers;
           we have done only what we ought to have done.’”
                           —Luke 17.10

I watch them preparing the new neighborhood:
laying sewers, then storm drains,
then water lines, then electricity.
Layers of sand and gravel, packed,
beneath what will be pavement.
They labor hard to do it well.
One says, “We bury our best work.”
Today I am thankful for ordinary laborers
who work unseen to make things right:
plumbers, orderlies, clerks, maids, parents—
and for the great infrastructure of grace:
those who practice kindness, forgiveness
and generosity unnoticed, who silently bless,
and all the unseen prayers that hold this world together.

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

           If you had faith the size of a mustard seed…
                           —Luke 17.6

God, I do not ask for great faith
Give me the smallest faith.
Give me a mustard seed of trust.
Let creep into my heart the tiniest ant of compassion.
May microbes of gratitude do their work in me.
Let the smallest atom of your joy thrum in me.
Murmur only your briefest syllable to me.
Let me be the faintest star in your beautiful night,
a single note in your earthly chorus.
Just a hint of you is all I need,
for merely a cell of you is all I am.
By your infinite grace that is enough.

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

You are the artist,
your wise fingers working my clay
into a vessel, simple and perfect.
            I surrender to your touch,
            the pressure of your hands,
            the guiding of your eye,
                      and I am at peace.

You fill me with exquisite wine,
grown in beauty, crushed in pain,
given in deepest generosity.
            I open myself to your grace,
            your presence filling me,
            your beauty to my brim,
                      and I am at peace.

You are the thirsty gourmet
connoisseur of souls,
whose thirst is life.
            I let you raise me to your lips,
            your lips hidden in this world,
            and you empty me, eyes closed,
                      and I am at peace.

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

Out walking this morning, why shouldn’t I
be deeply touched, and gratefully sigh
when a tiny, unsuspecting fly
happily flies right into my eye,
thinking it beautiful, open sky?

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