Psalm 19.7-14 (NRSV):
"The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul: the command of the Lord is true, and makes wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, and rejoice the heart: the commandment of the Lord is pure, and gives light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, and endures forever: the judgements of the Lord are unchanging and righteous everyone. More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold: sweeter also than honey, than the honey that drips from the comb. Moreover, by them is your servant taught: and in keeping them there is great reward. Who can know their own unwitting sins?:O cleanse me from my secret faults. Keep your servant also from presumptuous sins, lest they get the mastery over me: so I shall be clean, and innocent of great offence. May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight: O Lord, my strength and my redeemer."
Dietrich Bonhoeffer The Cost of Discipleship 1937:
- "When the Bible speaks of following Jesus, it is proclaiming a discipleship which will liberate humankind from all human-made dogmas, from every burden and oppression, from every anxiety and torture which afflicts the conscience. If they follow Jesus, people escape from the hard yoke of their own laws, and submit to the kindly yoke of Jesus Christ."
- "The real trouble is that the pure word of Jesus has been overlaid with so much human ballast - burdonsome rules and regulalation, false hopes and consolations - that it has become extremely difficult to make a genuine decision for Christ."
- "here is the sum of the commandments - to live in fellowship with Christ."
- "There is no fulfillment of the law apart from communion with God, and no communion with God apart from the law. to forget the first was the mistake of the Jews, and to forget the second the temptation of the disciples."
"Religion’s main and final goal is to reconnect us (re-ligio) to the Whole, to ourselves, and to one another—and thus heal us." ~ Richard Rohr Wholeness and Healing: Weekly Summary — Center for Action and Contemplation (cac.org)
“By your work you show what you love and what you know”. ~ Holy Hermit St Bruno of Cologne | Holy Hermit Remembrance
Lord God, we thank you for the gift of the desire to be ever more clear and intimate in our awareness of your intimacy with us, that’s sustaining us breath by breath by breath.
We thank you for this.… We thank you for the desire not to break the thread of that connectedness with you as we go through the day, facing what we need to face, walking what we need to walk through.…
We’re interiorly moved by your grace to reach out and touch the hurting places with love,
that the suffering might dissolve in love, and to continue touching the hurting places with love until only love is left,
and to be patient with this, and to be childlike, and to be open and faithful to this mysterious process in which we incarnate your healing presence in the midst of our lives. And we ask for this through your Son, Jesus. Amen.
~ James Finley, “Wholeness and Hope,” Wholeness and Healing: Weekly Summary — Center for Action and Contemplation (cac.org)
Psalm 19.8-14 7-9 (The Message)
The revelation of God is whole and pulls our lives together.
The signposts of God are clear and point out the right road.
The life-maps of God are right, showing the way to joy.
The directions of God are plain and easy on the eyes.
God’s reputation is twenty-four-carat gold, with a lifetime guarantee.
The decisions of God are accurate down to the ninth degree.
God’s Word is better than a diamond, better than a diamond set between emeralds.
You’ll like it better than strawberries in spring, better than red, ripe strawberries.
There’s more: God’s Word warns us of danger and directs us to hidden treasure.
Otherwise how will we find our way? Or know when we play the fool?
Clean the slate, God, so we can start the day fresh!
Keep us from stupid sins, from thinking we can take over your work;
Then we can start this day sun-washed, scrubbed clean of the grime of sin.
These are the words in our mouths; these are what we chew on and pray.
Accept them when we place them on the morning altar,
O God, our Altar-Rock, God, Priest-of-Our-Altar.
