Letter 4448

So easy to sit alone in my room, deep in morning contemplation.

So challenging to stand, walk outside, find my fellows.

But this always unfolding relationship with you, Lord, drives me up and out into the world. You call me forth.

❖

While outside, not only do I meet my fellows, but providence rains down on me, the sun shines, my skin is warm. Unexpected delights.

Let me listen for your call, and follow.

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Consider:

Can I follow your will today?

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Reading:

❖ “Come, my friends, / ‘Tis not too late to seek a newer world.” — Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses

❖ “By virtue of the Creation and, still more, of the Incarnation, nothing here below is profane for those who know how to see.” — Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Divine Milieu

❖ “The LORD shall preserve thy going out and thy coming in from this time forth, and even for evermore.” — Psalm 121:8 (KJV)

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Thank you for for reading. If this helped you today, please consider sharing it.

~B.R.

Letter 4447

There is a small voice inside me, stirring and trying to awaken. I can feel it, a rustling vole. If this voice were to speak, what would it say?

You are ready, to step out of your simple home.

You are ready, to listen for the right direction to go, and so move your feet.

You are ready, to walk the streets even where enemies dwell.

❖

I am ready.

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Consider:

Can I listen for your will today, Lord?

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Reading:

❖ “E ‘n la sua volontade è nostra pace” — “In His will is our peace.” — Dante, Paradiso (III.85)

❖ “Then, oh, then, I heard a voice which said, ‘There is one, even Christ Jesus, that can speak to thy condition’; and when I heard it my heart did leap for joy.” — George Fox, Journal (1647)

❖ “Speak, LORD; for thy servant heareth.” — 1 Samuel 3:9 (KJV)

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Thank you for for reading. If this helped you today, please consider sharing it.

~B.R.

Letter 4446

In the village there is a meeting in the square. We must determine who will lead us.

I arrive early, and help set up chairs.

Working with my fellows, we laugh and the work is done quickly. During the meeting, I feel as if I belong.

❖

Walking home through the meadow, I reflect: do we not all belong where we live? Why, then, do some have greater comfort than others? Let me pass on the belonging and ease you granted me, Lord.

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Consider:

Can I welcome all?

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Reading:

❖ “No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” — John Donne, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions (Meditation XVII)

❖ “Community cannot feed for long on itself; it can only flourish where always the boundaries are giving way to the coming of others from beyond them — unknown and undiscovered brothers.” — Howard Thurman, The Search for Common Ground

❖ “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.” — Hebrews 13:2 (KJV)

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Thank you for for reading. If this helped you today, please consider sharing it.

~B.R.

Letter 4445

I cannot forever stand against your will for me, though I may mulishly push on your tide. The water rises, then falls, then rises.

❖

Instead of trying to guide the river, let me stand still and let the current flow around me. Neighbors and joy will come to visit, drawn by the current, and I will greet them one by one.

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Consider:

Can I stand still?

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Reading:

❖ “Fate leads the willing and drags along the reluctant.” — Seneca, Letters to Lucilius (107.11, quoting Cleanthes)

❖ “We do not obtain the most precious gifts by going in search of them but by waiting for them.” — Simone Weil, Waiting for God

❖ “Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD.” — Exodus 14:13 (KJV)

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Thank you for for reading. If this helped you today, please consider sharing it.

~B.R.