Sunday September 1: Transformed to Love

To Practice

• Pray these passages again in the manner of Lectio Divina, speaking them out loud to engage your senses and affirm them in your being. What speaks to your journey now? As you gaze at the image, what opens in you?
• Spend a few moments in Heart-Centered Journaling, a practice that encourages reflection and guides you to align your thoughts and actions with love.
  • Quiet Reflection: Revisit again one or more of the passages to which you are drawn, let the Spirit guide you.
  • Journaling: Write down any recent thoughts or emotions that may not align with love or peace.
  • Transformation: Transform these into intentions or prayers rooted in love. For example, turn “envy” into “May I celebrate others’ successes with joy.”
  • Closing Prayer: End with a brief prayer, asking God to help you live from a place of love in the coming week.
• Practice the three movements of the Welcoming Prayer with any triggers or reactions that arise. Over time the prayer helps us respond rather than react, aligning our actions with our deepest intentions.

If you wish, you may re-read the full email reflection here: https://mailchi.mp/coutreach/2024-word-of-the-week-sept1

Rumi gets it. No matter the thought or emotion, allow it, welcome it. I am learning to welcome fears of declining health; I am not just yet able to meet them at the door laughing. The door, however, is open, and the Welcoming Prayer ushers them inside.

Merton gets it. We have to withdraw “from the noise and the confusion of a world that does not understand itself…” I must maintain a contemplative discipline to carry on God’s work and find the peace God wills for me.

My breath prayer this week: welcome; peace. <3 linda

Here’s an interesting description of the Kandinsky artwork in this week’s reflection:

Thank you for this link, Tom. – Pamela

Sure thing, Pamela.You might know this already, but “[Kandinsky] … may have had the neurological condition known as Chromesthesia, which is also known as sound-to-color synesthesia where the hearing and visual senses overlap. This condition would have undoubtedly influenced Kandinsky’s approach to art making and how he perceived music, which led to his dynamic and colorful abstract vistas on canvas,” according to the website Art in Context. Didn’t know of that condition.
… Thanks for your unfailingly insightful words and visuals each week. With deep gratitude,
Tom

I did not know this, Tom, and it is extremely fascinating. In today’s world Kandinsky might be called “differently abled.” Certainly this was a certain gift that he let flow through him. Thank you for sharing this! – Pamela

“As we sit in this sacred stillness, we begin to recognise the patterns of our thoughts and the root of our intentions. We see how the fears, desires, and impulses arising from within can misdirect our attention, leading us away from peace and towards harmful actions. ” Gazing into this week’s image, my heart centre is in anguish for all of creation. I am joining in what is now an annual time September 1 – Oct. 4,  “The season of creation.”. This year’s theme HOPE and ACTION. No matter which way I turn the image there is that angry face of distruction of ALL creation, both human and all other parts of this world we live in. But, I also see other images gentle images of light intersperaced throughout. These are the oasis’ of Hope. My heart dwells here. I am not alone. All those joining in this season of reflection are with me. Closing office space and down sizing  my home, I can choose where evrything finds a new home. I can take the time. A lovely woman in her late 40’s is helping me. I can take the time to gently allow her to let go of her inclination to dispose nilly willy, and become aware at the same time of my past desctructive behaviours. My “quest house” along with the Welcome Prayer are a space of triage. The introduction to my C.P. is Thomas’ , HERE I AM DEAR LORD, “I just allow YOU to sit and pray in me, asking for what we which to bestow….”

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