People's Prayers

Monday, April 24, 2023

Meditation Moment in Eastertide ~ Monday, Week 3 '23

Josephine Butler

"God and one woman
make a majority."

A feminist from an early age, Josephine Butler [1828-1906] became more involved in serious social issues about women after being devastated by the death of her 6 year old daughter. Early on she was co-founder of the North of England Council for Promoting the Higher Education of Women and, as a dedicated and committed Christian married to a Church of England clergyman, she also became a resolute advocate for the welfare of prostitutes. She believed that the double standard of sexual morality led to the exploitation of women and girls with no consequences for men.
Josephine was tireless in her efforts to have the Contagious Disease Acts repealed and was further helped in this effort by Florence Soper Booth, daughter of the founder of the Salvation Army, William Booth, and the influential editor of The Pall Mall Gazette, William Thomas Stead. The latter revealed the appalling ease of purchasing girls as young as 13 for sex and trafficking. The Acts were intended to thwart the spread of venereal diseases yet only women were being victimized by the requirements which often led to their imprisonment if infected, but men were not. In a public meeting she referred to some of the practices authorized by the Acts as "surgical rape" ~ a shocking remark that resulted in her desired outcome when the Acts were repealed in England, Ireland, and British Raj India. Josephine also successfully undertook the effort to have the age of sexual consent raised from 13 to 16 to reduce child prostitution.
At a time when women didn't have the vote, Mrs. Butler's efforts were compelling and considerable. Honored on the Church of England Calendar of Lesser Festivals, she is also portrayed in a window in the Anglican Cathedral of Liverpool with Queen Victoria and other notable women of the time. A College at the University of Durham is named for her and she has been remembered and honored in many other ways and places in England.

Mrs. Butler wrote more than 90 books and pamphlets relating to her various causes and also biographies of her father, her husband, and, St. Catherine of Siena. It is well past time for her to be known much farther afield as her influence continues to this day.

God of All Women and All Men and All of Our Children, God of Earth and God of Heaven, God of all that is ~ Seen and Unseen,
Your Servant Josephine led the way in her own time to courageously and relentlessly advocate on behalf of women and girls as fully human persons. From campaigning for higher education, pushing legislation to increase the age of sexual consent, and to succeed in having laws repealed that diminished and exploited women, especially those engaging in prostitution, Mrs. Butler was a force beyond our comprehension for her time. Help us realize that we must continue her valiant efforts. Let us not avert our eyes to the very real, very prevalent issues of sexual violence and exploitation of human beings in our own times ~ in the worst parts of the world and in the nicest parts of our comfortable lives. Rape as a political weapon, human trafficking for greed and lust, domestic violence, child pornography and prostitution ~ all are symptoms of a dissolving social ethic that only benefits the few who have power, and all thrive when we, the "good people," look away. Help us, Lord, to do the work You have given us to do and actively see to it that all Your children are safe and genuinely loved. amen.

All compositions remain the property of the owner of this blog but may be used with attribution and edited for local use as long as they are not sold or charged for in any way. For more information or comments, contact: Leeosophy@gmail.com

Saturday, April 22, 2023

Meditation Moment in Eastertide ~ Saturday Week 2 '23

Banyan Tree

Earth Day in Earth Month ~ April 2023

Do you know that even when you look at a tree and say,`That is an oak tree', or `that is a banyan tree', the naming of the tree, which is botanical knowledge, has so conditioned your mind that the word comes between you and actually seeing the tree? To come in contact with the tree you have to put your hand on it and the word will not help you to touch it...[and] if you have no relationship with the living things on this earth, you may lose whatever relationship you have with humanity.

~ Jiddu Krishnamurti*

Dear Creator God ~
Your precious Creation in all of its bounty is as equally important in the scheme of life as we humans are. You have given us plant life, sea life, creatures of the land and all that our life requires to be sustained. Help me stop and look, touch, hear, breathe in all that this Earth, our island home, has to offer. Help me know a tree, a flower, a bird beyond its classification and name. Help me to know this Earth as more than just land, air, and bodies of water to support me. Help me know it as a partner in life, mutually beneficial, living and breathing as I do and requiring as much of my participation and care in its health as I need from its participation in mine. Help me pay more attention to the destruction of our Earth and its air and water by the convenience of the packaging we use, the trash islands in our Oceans, and heat and fumes generated by our rabid consumption of fossil fuels.
Maybe, if we all learn to know that the dirt under our feet is as necessary to our life as are all the pretty creatures and lakes and oceans, we will not only take action for its better care, it will take better care of us. Perhaps in that way, more of us will see all of creation as necessary, whether wild, tame, cultivated, animal, mineral, and vegetable. And in those ways we will finally understand that every human on this Earth is also a partner in life, mutually beneficial, living and breathing as we do and requiring as much of us as we need from each of them. Maybe then, we'll all have a true relationship with humanity and our planet beyond just the names of a few people and a few trees. amen.

*Jiddu Krishnamurti, [1895-1986] a speaker and writer on matters philosophical and spiritual was born in British India and was influenced as a child by the Theosophical Society in Aydar. Sickly and sensitive as a child, considered vague and dreamy, he was deemed to be mentally backward and was regularly beaten at home and at school. His subsequent development as a writer and speaker is exceedingly remarkable. He disavowed allegiance to any caste or religion, mastered several languages and traveled the world lecturing and writing. He died in Ojai, California leaving a tremendously interesting legacy of writings and a fascinating biography.

All compositions remain the property of the owner of this blog but may be used with attribution and edited for local use as long as they are not sold or charged for in any way. For more information or comments, contact: Leeosophy@gmail.com

Friday, April 21, 2023

Meditation Moment in Eastertide ~ Friday in Week 2 '23

Frederick Buechner*

The time is ripe...not all the time, surely, but from time to time...to enter that still room within us all where the past lives on as a part of the present, where the dead are alive again, where we are most alive ourselves to turnings and to where our journeys have brought us. The name of the room is Remember — the room where with patience, with charity, with quietness of heart, we remember consciously to remember the lives we have lived.

O Holy Comforter ~
The calendar highlights the dates that are burned deeply into my heart with a mix of sweetness, sadness, and even a smile. And on each of those days I open the door to my inner room of memories and sit with them as if in a familiar attic. I sift through the virtual folders and boxes that hold remnants of the most meaningful people and times of my life now past. And on each of those days I need Your presence to surround me while winnowing through the highs and the lows of all that has been. Most importantly, please be here while I caress the remembrances of the all-too-brief moments with those now gone who I have loved and who have loved me. Give me Your peace when I go from this room until it is time again to remember. Strengthen my resolve to walk more fully into today, into all that is now, and all that is yet to be. amen.

*Carl Frederick Buechner [1926-2022] was an American theologian, Presbyterian pastor, and author of more than 30 books in several genres such as fiction, autobiography, and sermons, and is well-known among readers of Christian meditation. He received the O. Henry Award and been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award among many other honors.

Thursday, April 20, 2023

Meditation Moment in Eastertide ~ Thursday, Week 2 '23

Here's a test to find whether your mission on earth is finished:

if you're alive, it isn't.

~ Richard Bach*

Lord of Now, Lord of Forever,

I'm alive. Now what?

Some days it's hard work just to be alive. Other days go by so fast I hardly realize it. And then, someone you care about is suddenly gone and life takes on new meaning, again. And just as suddenly it hits me: his mission is finished, whether he was ready for it to be or we who care about him were, it just is. And even if we can’t understand or figure out what someone’s life mission was, especially someone very young, even in our deepest grief we can seek a way to live in earnest, and in honest and loving purpose, because of their importance in our lives.

Again I’m here, as I begin once more to re-evaluate and re-discover how I can live as if You, Lord, were with me every moment [as You are]. When I do come to You, I remember that I can worry less about doing stuff and think more about just being, especially with You, and then my honest and loving purpose ~ my mission ~ will become clearer. Of course I'll keep doing but I'm seeing again that if I spend more of life working to love You with all my heart, all my soul, all my strength, and my neighbors as myself ~ per Your instructions ~ that mission thing will take care of itself. Through that I will re-center my self, focus on being conscious in thought and action, movement and stillness, then perhaps more of what I do will then, simply, reflect the who I am continually becoming. Thanks for listening, as always. amen.

*Richard Bach [1937- ] is an author best known for classic 1970s bestsellers Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah, and later, There’s No Such Place as Far Away, and more. His books carry a philosophical theme that our physical limits and mortality are merely appearance. An avid pilot and love of flying nearly cut his mission short in 2012 as his small plane landed upside down in a field and he was badly injured but recovered and continues to write.

Wednesday, April 19, 2023

Meditation Moment in Eastertide ~ Wednesday Week 2 '23

To ‘listen’ another’s soul

into a condition of disclosure and discovery

may be almost the greatest service that

any human being ever performs for another

~ Douglas Steere*

Well, Dear God, here's a big shocker for you ~
I do acknowledge that sometimes I am so busy thinking about what I want to say that I forget to listen to what someone else is saying! I'm learning, slowly, to give others their air time even though I'm sure my response is the better comment and the most necessary. (Yeah, ok, I'll work on that thought, too.) I have experienced the rare moment when I feel listened to, as if what I think and say and feel are important to someone. Other times I can go on and on about my stuff trying to re-experience the feeling of importance. But when I'm being consciously more aware, I have had the right moments of just being present and listening to someone in need while letting whatever I wanted to say go away unspoken. That is an amazing and humbling feeling.

I know that true listening is a gift of personal attention to the one who is speaking in words and/or emotion especially in these times of so much yelling at others to make a point. I also know that deep listening is a gift to myself, as with it I learn more about the person I'm with and me, my needs and wants, how to express them, and how to better choose what to let go.

I will strive to be more attentive to others and less attentive to what I want to say about it. And the best example I have as a pay-off is You, always here, always listening even when I ramble (like now). Thank You for that and, as You already know, it's hard for me to take my own counsel in this so I'll be asking You regularly for a little smack on the back of my head along the way, OK? amen.

Best advice for good listening:

DO Listen deeply to understand

DON'T listen only with the intent to reply

*Douglas Steere [1901-1995] was a Quaker ecumenist who was professor of philosophy from 1928 to 1964 at Haverford College near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and spent a year as a visiting professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York. Dr. Steere was significantly involved in Quaker post-war relief efforts in Poland, Norway, and Finland after World War II and was given national recognition by Finland in 1987. He held a PhD from Harvard and was a Rhodes Scholar with two additional degrees from Oxford University. A prolific author, editor, and translator of books and articles on Quakerism and other religions, he was invited as an Ecumenical Observer at the Second Vatican Council.

Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Meditation Moment in Eastertide ~ Tuesday, Week 2 '23

It is a fact that people are always well aware of what is due them.

Unfortunately, they remain oblivious of what they owe to others.

~ St. Francis de Sales*

O Lord,
I am chastened by the recognition of how often I do the check-list thing and think about how to get all that I deserve. Then I look back over my life and worry that I might actually get all that I deserve...Please, God, spare me that, at least some of it!
Help me, again and always, to discover Your peace within myself, so that I can work to reflect it outwardly to others. Help me to measure my life in gratitude, not wants or expectations. Grant me the consciousness to spend more of my allotted days seeking forgiveness for my faults and forgiving others for theirs, rather than me judging us both harshly. I want to wake each morning, remember each noon, and when I lay me down to sleep, feeling and knowing the grace You bestow on us all. I want to look beyond myself and live into the gifts You have given each of us to use generously on behalf of all Your people.
O Lord, I am also chastened by the recognition that what good I perceive is owed to me in this life is exponentially less than what I owe You, Your People, and, Your Creation. It is past time for me to begin re-payment so I'll start today even if slowly. amen.

*Francis de Sales [1567-1622], a saint on the Roman Catholic calendar, was Bishop of Geneva but not allowed to live there as it was under Calvinist control. Of great accomplishment as a bishop, he is best known now as a mystical writer who championed the laity and provided gentle spiritual direction and counsel. His best known work is Introduction to the Devout Life, still read today, in which he emphasized charity over penance as a means to progress in spiritual pursuit whatever your station in life, from the wealthiest to the poorest. He did not define charity in terms of money but rather caring consideration in whatever way is available to us. He is said to have struggled with a short temper but through his writings we only know him with an inner calm and deep faith.

Monday, April 17, 2023

Prayers of the People: On THAT Road Again ~ 3rd Sunday of Easter '23 Yr A

For Sunday, April 23, 2023, Readings: Acts 2:14a, 36-41, Psalm 116:1-3, 10-17; 1 Peter 1:17-23, Luke 24:13-35

Peter said to them, "Repent and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit..." [Acts 2:38]

I love the LORD, because he has heard the voice of my supplication, because he has inclined his ear to me whenever I called upon him...Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his servants...O LORD I am your servant...I will offer you the sacrifice of thanksgiving and call upon the Name of the LORD. [Psalm 116: 1, 13, 14a]

Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth...You have been born anew...of imperishable seed, through the living and enduring word of God. [1 Peter 1:22a, 23]

Now on that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem and talking with each other about all these things that had happened....When he was at table with them he took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him; and he vanished from their sight...Then they told what had happened on the road, and how he had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread. [Luke 24:13-14, 30-31, 35]

"If only..." is a frequent refrain for all of us who wish we had done things differently, or the pandemic had not happened, or the weather was ___ [fill in the blank]. Mostly, though, I think most of us have yearned, with some desperation at times, for that if only I could see, talk to, or touch him, her, or them one more time moment. As for the death of one loved deeply, I can say from my own acute experiences that yes, much time does soften the punch and shock of loss, and it is then the memories become ever more important with the hope and desire to believe that they are still present with us. To remember the significant, the difficult, and the quiet moments that echo within forever. It is with that understanding that we enter this segment of Luke’s Gospel about two little-known disciples of Jesus.

We read about two regular guys walking down the road talking about the strange events of the prior few days. This other guy shows up and seems unaware of these events and their importance. They, surprised he didn’t know, explain it and then invite him home to dinner. Suddenly the stranger is hosting the meal and even more suddenly, as he blesses and breaks the bread, he vanishes. In an instant their eyes were opened as never before and when they realized who He was, they rushed to tell the others what they experienced.

The Disciples had that one-more moment ~ never enough, to be sure ~ and they certainly made the most of it as here we are, more than two thousand years later, still hearing their experiences with Jesus, still hearing the words He spoke. And then, we move into our “today” mode. This account of Jesus, as so many others, fades quickly and becomes too distant, other-worldly, merely familiar, and then gone from memory, until it comes around again in the cycle of readings in Eastertide.

This day and time is perfect to hear the story of the Road to Emmaus again, in our hearts, through our own memory of loss. Feel their confusion, their shock, their sadness. And then, hear and remember the words Jesus tells them and us.

Let this story stay with us so that each time receive the sacred Bread at the celebration of the Eucharist, and any time you break a piece of bread that is blessed at a meal, whether you are alone or with another, remember and know Christ in the breaking of the bread and feel more blessed inside because of it. More than a memory, Christ is living within us. As we travel the road of this life, wherever it takes us, when we call upon His name we know we are encircled by His love. When we are as His love in our actions, purified by obedience to His Truth, this Road will lead us Home.

LET US, GOD’S PEOPLE, PRAY

Leader: ~ Living Jesus, guide us out of the blindness of the “normal” and routine to discover the everyday newness of Creation around us. Open our hearts to Your Constant Presence, open our eyes to see Your Way to Eternal Life, and open our souls to accept and live into Your gift of Salvation.

O Christ Risen

RESPONSE: We call Your Name in Faith and Hope

~ Living Jesus, grant us the determination, the voice, and the words to redirect the energy of those in Global, National, and Local political power, to actions that benefit all humanity and the planet above unreasonable profit. We pray especially for: add your own petitions

O Christ Risen