In the quiet

It is time to take stock of my decision-making when:

• I'm not willing to be quiet and listen, either in the morning or the evening


• My schedule fills up with activity


• I choose mindless entertainment or even utter wasting of time over anything thought-provoking or nurturing


• I begin seeking affirmation in the wrong areas

Opportunity knocks

Every day, opportunity knocks.

It isn't always the opportunity we're looking for.

But each day presents us the opportunity to come into God's presence, to spend time just being loved by the One who loves us perfectly.

Unless we receive it, what we have to offer others is paltry, and far less than they deserve.

Until we receive it, we mistake all kinds of other experiences for love. In fact, much of what we think of as love, what we mistake for love when we haven't experienced real love, is often just self-indulgence of one form or another.

It may be codependency, power struggle, co-existence.

But when we spend time in the presence of Love, our perspective shifts. It doesn't happen all at once, of course, but we gradually become more attuned to the love that awaits our full participation.

Good meeting tonight

I went to my wife's small group this evening. What a nice meeting. Every now and then I guess I need to be reminded that the Truth in whom I believe is bigger than my failings.

This weekend we celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi. While literally translated "The Body of Christ," this is celebrated in the Church in America as "The Body and Blood of Christ." The selected Scripture readings for this Sunday clearly indicate that the blood is an important element of the feast, as the first two readings have to do with the sprinkling of the Hebrews of the Old Testament with the sacrificial blood, and then the letter to the Hebrews comparing and contrasting the effect of Christ's blood.

While the feast is certainly about the Eucharist, as indicated by the Last Supper reading from St. Mark's gospel, it seems to me that it is impossible to discuss the Eucharistic presence of Christ without also considering his mystical presence in his Body, the Church. The reason that the bread and wine are transformed into Jesus' body and blood is so that the Church may be likewise transformed, which happens as individuals are increasingly transformed. And the reason for the institution of Old Testament sacrifice was to presage Jesus' sacrifice, so that we would recognize it and subsequently be transformed in him.

A fresh post, finally!

Time to return. Have been quite busy. Cycling, church, Habitat, etc.

I have a regular Tuesday evening prayer group I co-lead, and I hate to miss it two weeks in a row. Meanwhile, I've been trying to meet with another Tuesday group as well, except I keep having other Tuesday stuff come up instead. Last week we had a really nice visit with our in-laws, who came in from out-of-town for a couple days, so it was important to me to spend as much of their visit with them as possible. Three weeks ago was Confirmation. Not long before that I was tending my wife who was recovering from surgery. The thing is, if this keeps up, I'm going to have to reevaluate my sense that I ought to be meeting with this other Tuesday group from time to time!

At any rate, I hope to spend some time on here reflecting after morning prayer time again. At least the prayer time has been there, even if the reflection time hasn't!