Opening:
Let my heart rise up to meet mercy, my voice to meet compassion, my hands to meet action.
BIBOLove: Breath In, Breath Out--Shhhh
Music:
Angels We Have Heard on High, The Piano Guys, with 32 fingers and 8 thumbs
Deliberation
by Rumi
A friend remarks to the prophet, Why is it
I always make bad business deals?
It’s like a spell. I become distracted
by business talk and get led into wrong decisions.
Muhammad replies, Stipulate with every transaction
that you need three days to made sure.
Deliberation is one of the qualities of God.
Throw a dog a bit of something.
He sniffs to see if he wants it.
Be that careful. Sniff with your wisdom nose.
Get clear. Then decide.
The universe came into being gradually
over six days. God could have just commanded, BE.
Little by little a person reaches forty and fifty
and sixty and feels more complete.
God could have thrown full-blown prophets
flying through the cosmos in an instant.
Jesus said one word, and a dead man sat up,
but creation usually unfolds like calm breakers.
Constant slow movement teaches us
to keep working like a small creek
that stays clear, that does not stagnate,
but finds a way through numerous
details, deliberately.
Deliberation is born of joy
like a bird from an egg.
Birds do not resemble eggs.
Think how different the hatching out is.
A white leathery snake egg, a sparrow’s egg,
a quince seed, an apple seed.
Very different things look similar at one stage.
These leaves, our bodily personalities,
seem identical, but the globe
of soul fruit we make
each is elaborately
unique.
~Rumi
Barks, Coleman; Jalal al-Din Rumi (2010-09-14). The Essential Rumi - reissue: New Expanded Edition (p. 258). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
Scripture Readings
Amos 8:4-12
2 Corinthians 9:1-15
Isaiah 12:2-6
Please bring your own sacred readings to the daily pattern.
Prayers
2015.12.11
For the oppressed and weary
Especially for #blacklivesmatter and
for the LGBTQIAP community.
For despair of violence,
for words that speak harm, especially against Muslims
for fighting in Barundi
for clashes in Ethiopia
for legal decisions that do harm
For the hope of peace,
for the climate talks in Paris, close to agreement
for hope of electing a woman in Saudi Arabia
for the release of activist Leyla Yunus from prison
For the people of Cape Verde, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Senegal
For those who suffer, especially the homeless and sick
For those we love, those we hate and those we are indifferent to
For the transformation from ME to WE
Let peace prevail on earth.
So mote it be.
News Notes:
Mass shooting resource: http://shootingtracker.com/wiki/Mass_Shootings_in_2015
Prayer cycle of the world's countries resource: http://www.oikoumene.org/en
Lord’s Prayer
Translation by Neil Douglas Klotz, Sufi
O Birther! Creator of the Cosmos,
Focus your light within us— make it useful:
Create your reign of unity now-
Your one desire then acts with ours,
as in all light, so in all forms.
Grant what we need each day in bread and insight.
Loose the cords of mistakes binding us,
as we release the strands we hold
of others’ guilt.
Don’t let surface things delude us,
But free us from what holds us back.
From you is born all ruling will,
the power and the life to do,
the song that beautifies all,
from age to age it renews.
Truly— power to these statements—
may they be the ground from which all
my actions grow: Amen.
May Peace Prevail on Earth. Amen. So mote it be.
…
Notes:
"Amen" means "may it be so."
"May peace prevail on earth." is an addition inspired by a practice Michael Dickel does.
BIBOLove is an addition attributed to the work of Soyinka Rahim, InterPlay practice, BIBOLove
