Words for a Sunday morning:

Word and Sacrament

Word – Vernunft, Reason, Spoken, Communicated, Word.
Sacrament – Mystical, Mysterious, Ritual, Body.

It is in Word and Sacrament that we live our faith.
Through mysterious Reason, In spoken Ritual, in Communicated Body.

This is the legacy, the gift we have been given.
Not a silent God. Not a Faith of Chaos or of Spirits. But the Word incarnate.
The Word in Body, to be made one with our Bodies.
Not a denial of Body but a blessing of Soul through Body

Mystically communicated. Spoken in Body.
Ritual of Reason.

Amen

From H. Nouwen:

"Words That Become FleshWords are important. Without them our actions lose meaning. And without meaning we cannot live. Words can offer perspective, insight, understanding, and vision. Words can bring consolation, comfort, encouragement and hope. Words can take away fear, isolation, shame, and guilt. Words can reconcile, unite, forgive, and heal. Words can bring peace and joy, inner freedom and deep gratitude. Words, in short, can carry love on their wings. A word of love can be the greatest act of love. That is because when our words become flesh in our own lives and the lives of others, we can change the world.

Jesus is the word made flesh. In him speaking and acting were one."

thoughts on love

Love.

Is there any other human experience so full of contradictions, whose boundaries are so fuzzy, whose demands are so simple and complex, whose hunger so great and yearnings so all encompassing and all powering?

A few words of wisdom from Henri Nouwen

Without the love of our parents, sisters, brothers, spouses, lovers, and friends, we cannot live. Without love we die. Still, for many people this love comes in a very broken and limited way. It can be tainted by power plays, jealousy, resentment, vindictiveness, and even abuse. No human love is the perfect love our hearts desire, and sometimes human love is so imperfect that we can hardly recognise it as love.In order not to be destroyed by the wounds inflicted by that imperfect human love, we must trust that the source of all love is God's unlimited, unconditional, perfect love, and that this love is not far away from us but is the gift of God's Spirit dwelling within us.

How can we choose love when we have experienced so little of it? We choose love by taking small steps of love every time there is an opportunity. A smile, a handshake, a word of encouragement, a phone call, a card, an embrace, a kind greeting, a gesture of support, a moment of attention, a helping hand, a present, a financial contribution, a visit ... all these are little steps toward love.Each step is like a candle burning in the night. It does not take the darkness away, but it guides us through the darkness. When we look back after many small steps of love, we will discover that we have made a long and beautiful journey.

I pray that you and I would choose love and will be astounded by love this week.