20th Sunday Ordinary Time 2013 Miroslav Volf




I have long been an admirer of the Christian theologian, Miroslav Volf and I find his words here immensely powerful and relevant to the Gospel for Sunday, both for individuals and in the wider world. Truly wonderful. 
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First, wrong doing makes our life meaningless; it will take the meaning out of our life. Well the story of the Christian faith is this that no matter what happens with our own personnel life they are always already inserted in the large story of God's dealings with humanity. And we know the end of that story, just as we know the beginning of that story because our lives are not in our own hands our lives are not in the hands of the evil diverse, our life's are most fundamentally in the hands of the loving god. Not withstanding what happens to us the world as a whole has not become devoid of meaning. Our life's are held in god's hands and taken to a good end. Wrong doing tends to colonize our own selves, we see our selves as those who have being wrong and the story - Christian story tells us you re not defined by what some body else does to you. You are not defined by what you do to your self, indeed nothing and nobody in this world can define who you are. You are god's creature you are defined not by relationship of any body to you but by relationship of god to you
Read more at http://fora.tv/2007/08/06/How_do_you__un-do__the_Culture_of_War#KuAYeBvLHZ35qxPL.99

First, wrong doing makes our life meaningless; it will take the meaning out of our life. Well the story of the Christian faith is this that no matter what happens with our own personnel life they are always already inserted in the large story of God's dealings with humanity. And we know the end of that story, just as we know the beginning of that story because our lives are not in our own hands our lives are not in the hands of the evil diverse, our life's are most fundamentally in the hands of the loving god. Not withstanding what happens to us the world as a whole has not become devoid of meaning. Our life's are held in god's hands and taken to a good end. Wrong doing tends to colonize our own selves, we see our selves as those who have being wrong and the story - Christian story tells us you re not defined by what some body else does to you. You are not defined by what you do to your self, indeed nothing and nobody in this world can define who you are. You are god's creature you are defined not by relationship of any body to you but by relationship of god to you
Read more at http://fora.tv/2007/08/06/How_do_you__un-do__the_Culture_of_War#KuAYeBvLHZ35qxPL.99


Christ said that the peace He offered was a peace the world cannot give. 


Artist Greg Olsen

This beautiful poem shows the kind of peace that transforms the ugly brutality in the world with the kind of love that God offers in return and the only kind of love that makes it possible to forgive our enemies.


To those who withhold refuge,

I cradle you in safety at the core of my Being.

To those that cause a child to cry out,

I grant you the freedom to express your own choked agony.

To those that inflict terror,

I remind you that you shine with the purity of a thousand suns.

To those who would confine, suppress, or deny,

I offer the limitless expanse of the sky.

To those who need to cut, slash, or burn,

I remind you of the invincibility of Spring.

To those who cling and grasp,

I promise more abundance than you could ever hold onto.

To those who vent their rage on small children,

I return to you your deepest innocence.

To those who must frighten into submission,

I hold you in the bosom of your original mother.

To those who cause agony to others,

I give the gift of free flowing tears.

To those that deny another’s right to be,

I remind you that the angels sang in celebration of you on the day of your birth.

To those who see only division and separateness,

I remind you that a part is born only by bisecting a whole.

For those who have forgotten the tender mercy of a mother’s embrace,

I send a gentle breeze to caress your brow.

To those who still feel somehow incomplete,

I offer the perfect sanctity of this very moment.

Author unknown






PRAYER OF SAINT CATHERINE OF SIENA     
In your nature, eternal Godhead, I shall come to know my nature.
 And what is my nature, boundless love? 
It is fire, because you are nothing but a fire of love. 
And you have given humankind a share in this nature, for by the fire of love you created us. 
And so with all other people and every created thing; you made them out of love. 
O ungrateful people! 
What nature has your God given you? 
His very own nature! 
Are you not ashamed to cut yourself off from such a noble thing through the guilt of deadly sin?
 O eternal Trinity, my sweet love! You, light, give us light. You, wisdom, give us wisdom. You, supreme strength, strengthen us. 
Today, eternal God, let our cloud be dissipated so that we may perfectly know and follow your Truth in truth, with a free and simple heart. 
God, come to our assistance! 
Lord, make haste to help us! Amen.



Sir Terry Frost - Love Tree Source


Everything bends

                 to re-enact

             the poem lived,

                             lived, not written,

the poem spoken

              by Christ, who never

         wrote a word,

             saboteur

        of received ideas

who rebuilt Rome

             with the words He

          never wrote;

           whether sacred,

          whether human,

                            himself a sunrise

         of love enlarged,

                  of love, enlarged


                   William Plomer


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