Take Root Devotions

Words Of Hope and Faith

 

A classic Chasidic story says that when the rabbi of Kotzker was asked, “Where is the place of the Messiah’s glory?” he replied, “Wherever we give Him room, wherever we make space for Him.” Where is the tender place in you where the Messiah will come to birth?  
Rosemarie Berger

 

Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you just fit into it without even thinking.      Romans 12: 2 (The Message Bible).

February 16, 2011

Today,
as yesterday,
I date a page
and discuss with myself
how you have loved me, touched me,
left me grieving, run late, and still
forgive all my complaint
as I shyly ask
for your love one
more day.

Louis Templeman

Words Of Hope and Faith

 

O Lord, we do not pray
that your birth according to the flesh
shall be renewed as it once occurred.
Rather we pray
that your invisible Godhead
may be grafted into us.
May that which was then
accorded in the flesh to Mary alone,
now be granted in the spirit to the church:
so that faith unquestioning may conceive you,
the spirit free of all corruption may bear you,
and the soul overshadowed
by the power of the Most High
may quicken with you evermore.
Go not forth from us;
spring forth rather from within us. Amen.

-from the ancient Spanish Mozarabic liturgy

Shaken, Yet Restored

 

Deeply distressed at this they began say to him one after another, "Surely it is not I, Lord?"  Mt. 26: 22.

 It is odd.  It is poignant.  It is disturbing to notice in the very fabric of the origins of our Christian faith is betrayal; from one in the very inner circle.  It was so unthinkable that the prediction of it 
elicited this disturbing question: Surely, it is not I, Lord?  The horror of it struck to the heart of each of the apostles.  None could foresee themselves as the guilty one, yet they knew their own instability.

In Matthew 26: 31 we find Jesus saying, "This night all of you will have your faith in me shaken . . . ."  All of them had their faith shaken.  One of them denied knowing him.  One betrayed him.

Yet, only Judas do we remember as evil.  Why?  The others repented, Peter most dramatically.  Somewhere in the original Maundy Thursday experience came the crunch time for Judas.  Judas finally realized Jesus was incorrigible in his reaching out to the hopeless, the helpless, the poor, the voiceless and was not going to build his work on powerful people or secure a stable political base.  I believe that when he saw the Master washing feet he had his confirmation that he had made the right decision to betray Christ. This stooping to wash feet must have repelled him.  It certainly wasn't easy for Peter.  But Judas was not looking to become a foot washer.  The idea of servant-leadership was not for him.  Later when faced with the consequences of his evil deed, his self-loathing did not allow him to consider repentance and confession.

All the disciples were shaken in faith.  Only Judas refused to repent.  Therefore, no matter what good Christ saw in Judas when he called him to be one of the Twelve it was lost in the shadow of this troubling singular event of his betrayal.  Repentance could have made all the difference.

In Peter we can see the cleansing and restoration received by all the others.  We do not think of him as the doubting, denying, weak-kneed one but as he became: the Rock. Peter the Rock.  Jesus prophesied it.  He saw it in him, but Peter had to go through all the changes and especially the humiliating public failure and subsequent confession and repentance.  Through repentance he became the noble and powerful apostle.  It made all the difference.  Life can be rebuilt through repentance.

Louis Templeman

 

 

Words Of Hope and Faith

 

"Jesus, how tenderly and gently you lead my soul!"

St. Therese

 

 

Celtic Night Prayer

GOD WITH ME LYING DOWN

God with me lying down, God with me rising up, God with me in each ray of light, Nor I a ray of joy without him, Nor one ray without him. Christ with me sleeping, Christ with me waking, Christ with me watching, Every day and night, Each day and night. God with me protecting, The Lord with me directing, The Spirit with me strengthening, Forever and forevermore, Ever and evermore, Amen. Chief of chiefs, Amen.

 

Words Of Hope and Faith

 

Lord, grant that I may always allow myself
to be guided by you,
always follow your plans,
and perfectly accomplish your holy will.
Grant that in all things,
great and small,
today and all the days of my life,
I may do whatever you require of me.
Help me respond
to the slightest prompting of your grace,
so that I may be
your trustworthy instrument for your honor.
May your will be done in time and in eternity
by me, in me, and through me. Amen.

-St. Teresa of Avila

NIGHT prayer

 

Before the ending of the day,
Creator of the world, we pray
That you, with steadfast love, would keep
Your watch around us while we sleep.

From evil dreams defend our sight,
From fears and terrors of the night;
Tread underfoot our deadly foe
That we no sinful thought may know.

O Father, that we ask be done
Through Jesus Christ, your only Son;
And Holy Spirit, by whose breath
Our souls are raised to life from death.

 

At a Calvary Near the Ancre (For Good Friday)

One ever hangs where shelled roads part.
In this war He too lost a limb,
But His disciples hide apart;
And now the Soldiers bear with Him.
Near Golgotha strolls many a priest,
And in their faces there is pride
That they were flesh-marked by the Beast
By whom the gentle Christ’s denied.
The scribes on all the people shove
And bawl allegiance to the state,
But they who love the greater love
Lay down their life; they do not hate.

 

by WILFRED OWEN (1917)

Words Of Hope and Faith

 

Recovering the centrality of the divine Word in the Christian life leads us vigorously to embark upon the new evangelization.
Pope Benedict XVI

 

Acts 12:1-17 (NRSV)
He motioned to them with his hand to be silent, and described for them how the Lord had brought him out of the prison. And he added, “Tell this to James and to the believers.” Then he left and went to another place.