Be still and aware...

Advent is an odd, albeit authentically sacred, time for practicing Christians: it quietly lures us into an encounter with paradox and balance, light as well as darkness, embracing an active waiting rather than passively wasting our time and a deep reverence for loving the world as it is even while we dream of what it could be. In the Tuesday morning prayers from Praying with the Earth, we are given three holy texts and a prayer for awareness.

+  God lifts up those who are bowed down. (Psalm 146: 8)

+  Whoever wishes to be great among you must become a servant among you. (Matthew 20: 26)

+ Why do you not bow to the one whom My own hands have made? (Quran - Sad 38:75)

Here are two links that touched my heart with a small sense of hope and trust in an otherwise often desolate reality.  The first speaks of Jews and Muslims in Berlin caring for another with compassion. (check it out @ http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/210127/in-berlin-jews-and-muslims-fight-for-each-other/#.VH4hCuZcgnc.facebook

The second is a primer on what the holy places in Jerusalem mean to both Muslims and Jews. It too is a small step towards understanding and peace-making. (http://forward.com/articles/210118/a-failure-to-see-why-jerusalem-matters-to-the-othe/?utm_content=ThemedNewsletter_SubSection_Position:2_Image&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Opinion&utm_campaign=Opinion%202014-12-01)

Today's prayer is as follows:

It is in the depths of life that we find you
at the heart of this moment
at the center of our soul
deep in the earth and its eternal stirrings.
You are the Ground of all being
the Well-Spring of time
Womb of the earth
the Seed-Force of stars.
And so at the opening of this day
we wait
not for blessings from afar
but for You
the very Soil of our soul
the early Freshness of morning
the first Breath of day.

BE STILL AND AWARE...