"CALLED TO LOVE"

A MEDITATION/REFLECTION BY JOYCE RUPP

For one being to love another,

that is perhaps the most difficult of all tasks,

the ultimate, the last test and proof.

The work for which all other work is but preparation.

-Rainer Maria Rilke - 

Jesus, you are "filled with love" for me 

just as you were for the rich young person who came to you. 

I, too, have riches, a wealth of love within me, 

that is meant to be shared. 

I yearn to have a deep desire for goodness 

so that I can leave some of the things I'm greedy for 

and focus my heart on the deeper values of your love.

  I yearn to love as you have loved. (Mk 10:17-22).

Jesus, there are places within my heart 

that are still unfree and fearful. 

You made yourself available to the Samaritan woman 

and you pursued her with your strong belief in her inner treasures.  

I, too, am meant to be a person of love 

who announces hope to others (Jn 4: 1-42)

Jesus, you told a powerful story of a person 

who stopped on a risky road to care for someone's wounds. 

Help me to stop at the unpleasant places in my life, 

to be present to those who need a touch of love,

 especially on those days 

when my life is moving hurriedly and intensely.  

Grant me the courage to be less fearful of reaching out 

and walking with others 

who need a gesture of kindness and care. (Lk. 10:29-37)

Jesus, you welcomed a penitent woman 

who came to bathe your feet with her tears. 

Your recognized the beauty of her love and the depth of her sorrow. 

There are tears within me which need to be shed 

for the pain I've cause and the hurt I've generated.

 You are a loving welcome for me 

as I come with repentance. 

Thank you for all the times 

you've welcomed me home. (Lk 7:36-50)

Jesus, you loved your own, loved them to the end."

 You bent low before them, smelled their dirty feet,

 and washed them tenderly. 

You then asked them to share that same great love with others. 

I, your, servant, am called to share my gifts 

and talents with those who are part of my life. 

I am not meant to be a doormat for them 

but I am called to be generous and humble 

with the deeds that I do.  

May it be so. (Jn13:1-15)

Jesus, you called your disciples friends. 

You recognized the great blessing 

they were for you on  your journey. 

Thank you for the gift of my significant persons, 

for the privilege of walking through life with them.

 Remind me often of the strength and courage

 these loved ones give to me.  

May the joy I experience through them 

radiate love in my life to all who know me. (Jn 15: 1-7)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Thanksgiving Season is one of the special times 
 that invite us to pause,to reminisce and to remember 
everything that we need to be grateful for - 
all the people, events, and things -
that have come into our lives
and that have shaped our being into who we are.

Here are some powerful one-liners and inspiratons that might help us
to enter, to fathom and to reflect on 
the many ways by which
we have been invited to live out this spirit of Thanksgiving
in our personal lives!

May we always have a grateful heart!

Happy Thanksgiving!

"In ordinary life, we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, 

and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich."

 – Dietrich Bonhoeffer

"Gratitude ... goes beyond the "mine" and "thine" 

and claims the truth that all of life is a pure gift. 

In the past I always thought of gratitude as a spontaneous response 

to the awareness of gifts received, 

but now I realize that gratitude can also be lived as a discipline. 

The discipline of gratitude is the explicit effort to acknowledge 
that all I am and have is given to me as a gift of love, a gift to be celebrated with joy."

-- Henri J. M. Nouwen

"Perhaps it takes a purer faith to praise God for unrealized blessings than for those we once enjoyed 
or those we enjoy now." 


-- A. W. Tozer 

"Thanksgiving like contentment is a learned attitude. The person who has not learned to be content will not be thankful for he lives with the delusion that he deserves more or something better."

--Robert Flatt

"To educate yourself for the feeling of gratitude means to take nothing for granted, 

to always seek out and value the kind that will stand behind the action. 

Nothing that is done for you is a matter of course. 

Everything originates in a will for good, which is directed at you. 

Train yourself never to put off the word or action for the expression of gratitude."

--Albert Schweitzer

"To be grateful is to recognize the love of God in everything He has given us--and He has given us everything.  Every breath we draw is a gift of His love, every moment of existence is a grace, for it brings with it immense graces from Him."

~ Thomas Merton

"We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures."

 – Thornton Wilder

A Thanksgiving  Blessing

May an abundance of gratitude burst forth

as you reflect upon what you received.

May thanksgiving overflow in your heart

and often be proclaimed in your prayer.

May you gather around the table of your heart

an ardent faithfulness, kindness and goodness

of each person who is true to you.

May the harvest of your good actions

bring forth plentiful fruit each day.

May you discover a cache of hidden wisdom

among the people and events that have brought you 

distress and sorrow.

May your basket of blessings surprise you 

with its diversity of gifts

and of its opportunities for growth.

May all that nourishes and resources your life

bring you daily satisfaction and renewed hope.

May you slow your hurried pace of life

so you can be aware of, and enjoy,

what you too easily took for granted.

May you always be open, willing,

and ready to share your blessings with others.

May you never forget the Generous One

who loves you lavishly and unconditionally.

-Sister Joyce Rupp -

AUTUMN PRAYER OF ACCEPTANCE

One of the blessings of living in countries like United States with four seasons in a year is the privilege of being able to transition to the different seasons and thus to appreciate each season better.  However, I have friends who hated the cold seasons of October and November and who move to or wish to be rather in warmer tropical areas where the trees are evergreen and routinely alternate dry and wet year after year.  As the autumn season progressively transforms our world in preparation for the winter time, I am reminded of those friends of mine who find it hard to experience all these autumnal changes in lives and in the lives of those who are around them.  As the trees are gradually being stripped bare, and the gray and brown dead leaves cover the fields, the mountains and the hills, I become more keenly aware of the gnawing sadness, the unknown fear and all the possible discomforts that maybe slowly overtaking them.  I ask you to join me if you know anybody who may be in the same predicaments.  Let us hold them close as our days get shorter and the nights get colder and longer each day.  As we embrace them, let us also be aware of where we are now in our inner horizons, that is, in our inner seasons of life.  Are we there yet? Where are we as these autumnal transformations are happening right before your eyes? 

Let us all pause and immerse ourselves then into this profound meditation written by our spiritual friend and companion inviting us to look at the wisdom and inspiration of the autumn season.  
Let us be reminded of how God continually invites us to be open to experience these necessary spiritual transformations in our lives in our spiritual journeys.   

Autumn God, earth teaches me 

by her natural turning from one season to another. 

As she enters into the dying and rising cycle, 

she welcomes the changes.   

May I be open to the teaching in this season of autumn 

and turn, as autumn does, 

towards opportunities for my spiritual transformation.

When I accept only the beautiful and reject the tattered, 

torn pieces of who I am, 

when I treat things that are falling apart as my enemies, 

walk me among the dying leaves.   

Let them tell me about their power to re-energize the earth's soil 

by their decomposition and decay.

When I fear the loss of youthfulness and the reality of my aging,
 turn my face to the brilliant color of October trees. 

Open my spirit to the mellow resonance of the autumn sunsets.
 Brush your love past my heart with the beauty of the golden leaves twirling from the autumn trees.

When I refuse to wait with the mystery of the unknown 

and when I struggle to control rather than to let life evolve, 

wrap me in the darkening days of November. 

Encourage me to enter into stillness and silent mystery, 

to wait patiently for clarity and wisdom.

When I grow tired of using my gifts to benefit others, 

take me to the autumned fields 

where earth freely yields the bounty of her summer. 

Let me become aware of how she allows her hands to be stripped clean so her fruitfulness will be a source of nourishment.

When I resist efforts to warm a relationship 

that has grown stale by my chilly indifference or resistance, 

 me feel the first hard freeze of autumn breath 

and the death that this coldness brings to greening things.

When I neglect to take care of myself and become 

totally absorbed in life activities, 

let me see how animals gather sustenance 

and provide for the winter. 

Take me inside the caves of those who hibernate 

and remind me of my contemplative nature.

When I fight unwanted and unsought changes 

and when I seek to keep thing just as they are, 

 me in the wings of birds flying south for another season.  

Gather their spirit of freedom into my heart. 

Let me be willing to leave my well satisfied place of comfort 

for the discomfort of a  long flight into the unknown.

Thank you, God of Transformation, 

for all these lessons that the autumn earth teaches me.

Sister Joyce Rupp

COROLLARY PRAYER

WAKEN IN ME A SENSE OF JOY

O extravagant God, this ripening, red-tinged autumn,
waken in me a sense of joy in just being alive.

Joy for nothing in general except everything in particular;
joy in sun and rain mating with earth to birth a harvest;
joy in soft lift through the shyly disrobing trees;
joy in acolyte moon setting halos around processing clouds;
joy in the beating of a thousand wings
mysteriously knowing which way is warm;
joy in wagging tails and kids' smiles
and in this spunky old city;
joy in the taste of bread and wine, 
the smell of dawn, a touch, a song, a presence;
joy in having what people cannot live without - 
other people to hold and to cry and laugh with;
joy in love, in you and that all at first and last is grace.

Ted Loder, Guerillas of Grace, 136.

What keeps us alive, what allows us to endure?

I think it is the hope of loving and being loved.

I heard a fable once about the sun going on a journey

to find its source, and how the moon wept without her lover's warm grace.

We weep when light does not reach our hearts.

We wither like fields if someone close does not rain their kindness upon us."

Meister Eckhart, from LOVE POEMS FROM GOD, 
translated by Daniel  Ladinsky. 109

"And so we pray:

May God bless you with discomfort at easy 
answers, half truths, and superficial
relationships so that you will live deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice,
oppression, and using people on earth
so that you will work for justice, equity and peace.

May God bless you with weeping and desolation, 
so that you may grow compassion 
for those who suffer because of others,
and may you reach out to them.

And May God bless you with foolishness
to think that you can make a difference
where you are, in this world, in this ministry,
in your surroundings, 
and that you can do the things
which others say cannot be done.

We pray this, God, in your Name. Amen."

-Original author of prayer unknown, adapted by Alexis Navarro

BLESSED IS THE MAN WHO TRUSTS IN THE LORD...

He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water 

that brings forth its fruit in due season;

his leaf shall not wither;

and whatever he does shall prosper!

PSALM 1: 1-5