Sunday
All we can do is fall into the Eternal Mercy—into Love—which we can never really fall out of because “we belong to Christ and Christ belongs to God.”
—Richard Rohr
Monday
To bear the Word, to enter the kingdom, we must indeed be born from the Spirit, not for the second time in the womb of our natural mothers, but continually in the love of the Mother of God that brought forth her son, and like her, in the same movement, to bear Christ as well.
—Maggie Ross
Tuesday
We all have the same objective gift, but different ways of saying yes and consenting to it. There are as many ways to manifest God as there are beings in the universe. Though we differ in likeness, the image of God (imago Dei) persists and shines through all created things.
—Richard Rohr
Wednesday
For most of us, our own deepest identity is still well hidden from us. Religion’s primary and irreplaceable job is to bring this foundational truth of our shared identity in God to full and grateful consciousness.
—Richard Rohr
Thursday
All sorts of people jostled together, sitting and strap-hanging—workers of every description going home at the end of the day. Quite suddenly I saw with my mind, but as vividly as a wonderful picture, Christ in them all.
—Caryll Houselander
Friday
When God created you, God did not have to think up who you might be. God eternally knows who you eternally are and are called to be from before the origins of the universe. As Saint Paul says, “Your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3).
—James Finley
Week Fifty-One Practice
Breathing in the Breath of God
Spiritual writer Christine Aroney-Sine offers a breathing prayer and practice:
Sit comfortably with your feet firmly on the ground. Close your eyes. Take a few deep breaths slowly in and out. As you breathe in, be conscious of your breath passing in through your mouth or nose, filling your lungs with life-giving oxygen.
Hold your breath for ten seconds, then slowly breathe out, allowing the toxins in your body to be expelled. Imagine the tension, anxieties, and pressure in your body flowing out as you do so. Come to rest, calm your mind, relax your body.
Recite a breathing prayer and sit or stand quietly for a minute in the presence of God.
Aroney-Sine shares this breath prayer:
Breathe in the breath of God
Breathe out your cares and concerns
Breathe in the love of God
Breathe out your doubts and despairs
Breathe in the life of God
Breathe out your fears and frustrations
We sit quietly before the One who gives life and love to all creation
We sit in awe of the One who formed us in our mother’s womb
We sit at peace surrounded by the One who fills every fibre of our being
Breathe in the breath of God
Breath out your tensions and turmoil
Breathe in the love of God
Breathe out your haste and hurry
Breathe in the life of God
Breathe out your work and worry
We sit quietly before the One who gives life and love to all creation
We sit in awe of the One who formed us in our mothers’ wombs
We sit at peace surrounded by the One who fills every fibre of our being
Reference:
Christine Aroney-Sine, The Gift of Wonder: Creative Practices for Delighting in God (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Books, 2019), 128–129. Used with permission.
Image credit and inspiration: Susan Wilkinson, Untitled (detail), 2021, acrylic paint, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. Just like the colors swirl together in this painting, we and God swirl in our dwelling/indwelling.
