Friday May 29 Thank You God for All Your Gifts

 

 

Daily Dig for May 29

 

 

Dorothy Day

We may be living on the edge of eternity – but that should not make us dismal. The early Christians rejoiced to think that the end of the world was near, as they thought. Are we so unready to face God? Are we so avid for joys here, that we perceive so darkly those to come? Source: On Pilgrimage

 

 

 

Daily Prayer for May 29

Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt

But God’s mercy is so abundant, and his love for us is so great, that while we were spiritually dead in our disobedience he brought us to life with Christ. It is by God’s grace that you have been saved. In our union with Christ Jesus he raised us up with him to rule with him in the heavenly world. Ephesians 2:4–6, TEV Lord our God, we thank you for allowing us to experience your power. We thank you that we need not be occupied with material things only. We thank you that your Spirit comes to our aid again and again. Grant that we may continue to have your help, and let many hearts find what a grace it is that in spirit we may walk in heaven even during this transitory life with all its foolish ways. We may say with complete assurance that everything tormenting and burdening will pass by. It passes by, and we go joyfully and confidently toward your kingdom, which continually gains in power. Amen.



Thursday May 28 Jesus Cures the Blind Man

Daily Prayer for May 28

 

 

 



 

 

We pray that we may see with our hearts.

 

 

Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt

You are all children of the light and children of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be awake and sober. 1 Thessalonians 5:5–6, NIV Dear Father in heaven, we thank you that we may be your children. We thank you that through your Spirit our hearts may know that we are your children. Even when everything around us becomes difficult and we are hemmed in by darkness, we remain your children. Even when we often do not see how we are to go on and everything seems to be taken from us, we remain your children. Even when sin and death surround us and accuse us of being in the wrong, we still remain your children. As your children we entrust ourselves to your hands. In our whole life, in all our work and activity, we dwell in what has come from you, and we rejoice in Christ our Savior. Amen.   Daily Dig for May 28 Pope John Paul II Some Christians think they are able to do without constant spiritual effort because they do not heed the urgency of confronting themselves with the truth of the gospel. So as not to disturb their way of living, they attempt to empty, and make innocuous, words such as: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you” (Luke 6:27). For these persons such words are difficult to accept and translate into a coherent conduct of life. In fact, they are words that, if taken seriously, demand a radical conversion. Source: Spoken at the Vatican, January 7, 2001 www.plough.com 

Memorial Day Video - Thanks For Freedom

Pentecost Sunday May 24 Come Holy Spirit, We need You

New post on A CHRISTIAN PILGRIMAGE

PENTECOST: JESUS’ PROMISE FULFILLED by achristianpilgrim Jakarta, 24 May 2015 [PENTECOST SUNDAY] Daily Prayer for May 24 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Luke 4:18-19, RSV We thank you, dear Father in heaven, for the many times you let us experience that we do not need to despair because of darkness, weakness, or sickness. You hear the desires of our hearts. You love us for all that we love when we love the Savior and when we praise his name. Let us remain in this spirit. Come to us with many proofs of your power, to the glory of your name. Come in the inner quiet of heart through which we are able to grasp what it means for us that you are our Father in Jesus Christ. Amen. Daily Dig for May 24 Meister Eckhart We should be as our Lord told us: “You should be like those who at all times watch and wait for their Lord (Luke 12:36). Truly, such vigilant people are alert and on the watch for the Lord for whom they wait; they look to see if he is not by chance concealed in what befalls them, however strange it may be to them. So we too should consciously look out for our Lord in all things. This demands much effort, and must cost us all that our senses and faculties are capable of. But this is the right thing for us to do, so that we grasp God in the same way in all things and find him equally everywhere. Source: Meister Eckhart: Selected Writings   achristianpilgrim | May 24, 2015 at 1:13 am | Tags: ACTS OF THE APOSTLES, HOLY SPIRIT, JERUSALEM, PENTECOST | Categories: MISCELLANY, SAINTS WE LOVE | URL: http://wp.me/p1055h-2R0



Sunday Penetecost Sunday May 24

THE HOLY SPIRIT HAS COME

(A biblical refection on the PENTECOST SUNDAY, 24 May 2015)

First Reading: Acts 2:1-11

Psalms: Psalm 104:1,24,29-34; Second Reading: Galatians 5:16-25; Gospel Reading: John 15:26-27; 16:12-15

 

Daily Prayer for May 23

Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt

They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. John 17:16-17, NIV Dear God and Father of us all, sanctify us in your truth. Your Word is truth. We come before your presence and ask you to touch us with your Spirit, to shape our lives in the truth and in the joy of your name. Touch us with your Spirit, that we may carry out our tasks in your service. May your face shine on us and on all needy people who turn to you. May your power be given ever more fully, and may your cause become great in the world until at last it brings new life to all nations. Amen.

 

Daily Dig for May 23

Madeleine L’Engle

How often we children have been unwilling: unwilling to listen to each other, unwilling to hear words we do not expect. But on that first Pentecost the Holy Spirit truly called the people together in understanding and forgiveness and utter, wondrous joy. The early Christians, then, were known by how they loved one another. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if people could say that of us again? Not an exclusive love, shutting out the rest of the world, but love so powerful, so brilliant, so aflame that it lights the entire planet – nay, the entire universe! Source: Episcopal Life

 



The Scripture Text

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. And they were amazed and wondered, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” (Acts 2:1-11 RSV)

Pentecost is perhaps the Church’s most exciting feast day of the year, for the Holy Spirit animates and makes real everything we believe. How wonderful are the fulfilments that took place on that day!

With the coming of the Holy Spirit, everything changes. We are refreshed and filled with love. Dwelling in us, The Spirit bears witness to our hearts that we are children of God (Romans 8:15-16). The Spirit of God prays in us (Romans 8:26). He guides us in the truth (John 14:26). He empowers us to serve the Lord in love (Romans 7:6). He transforms us, developing His wonderful fruits in our lives (Galatians 5:22-23).

This feast if also connected to Jewish worship in the Old Testament. For ancient Israel, Pentecost – fifty days after Passover – was a feast during which the whole community thanked God for the first fruits of the early harvest (Deuteronomy 16:9-12). Overtime, it came to be observed also as a feast of thanksgiving for the Torah, the Law received by Moses on Mount Sinai.

Jesus has fulfilled the words of the Old Testament. He alone was able to please God. Now, the Holy Spirit has come. He has inaugurated the harvest of all God’s people. Now, the covenant, written so long ago on tablets of stone, can be written deep in our hearts. We have a wonderful hope! All that is impossible for us according to our natural ability is made possible by the Holy Spirit’s power and grace.

Prayer: Father of light, from whom every good gift comes, send Your Spirit into our lives with the power of a mighty wind, and by the flame of Your wisdom open the horizons of our minds. Loosen our tongues to sing Your praise in words beyond the power of speech, for without Your Spirit man could never raise His voice in words of peace or announce the truth that Jesus is Lord, who lives and reign with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Jakarta, 22 May 2015

A Christian Pilgrim

Friday May 22 We are all One in the Spirit.

                                              

 

  

Daily Dig for May 22

The Fruits of the Holy Spirit

 

 

 

 

 

 



Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt

Avoid dividing the world into “us” and “them.” If you do, you will harden your heart. There are not two worlds, one in God’s hands and the other one not. There are not two species of people either, one totally under God’s rule and the other completely outside of it. Source: Everyone Belongs to God Daily Prayer for May 22 Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt I will declare your name to my brothers; in the congregation I will praise you. Psalm 22:22, NIV     Lord our God, Almighty Father in heaven, we stand before you as your children, whom you want to protect through the need of our time, through all sin and death. We praise you for giving us so much peace in an age full of trouble, and for granting us the assurance of your help. Even when we suffer, we do not want to remain in the darkness of suffering but want to rise up to praise and glorify you. For your kingdom is coming; it is already at hand. Your kingdom comforts and helps us and points the way for the whole world, that your will may be done on earth as in heaven. Amen.

Tuesday May 19 Prayer is our Main Work

Daily Prayer for May 19



Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt

I love you, Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Psalm 18:1-2, NIV Lord our God, we thank you that we have often felt you close to us. We thank you that you are near us and that you strengthen the weak. Remember us and give each one the help he needs to be true to his calling. Remember all humankind and grant that we may go forward in spirit and in truth. Give new light to the peoples who are still in great darkness. Let your kingdom and your reign be revealed and your name at last be honored by all. Amen.

Daily Dig for May 19

Brother Lawrence

I regard myself as the most wretched of all men, stinking and covered with sores, and as one who has committed all sorts of crimes against his king. Overcome by remorse, I confess all my wickedness to him, ask his pardon, and abandon myself entirely to him to do with as he will. But this king, filled with goodness and mercy, far from chastising me, lovingly embraces me, makes me eat at his table, serves me with his own hands, gives me the keys of his treasures and treats me as his favorite. He talks with me and is delighted with me in a thousand and one ways; he forgives me and relieves me of my principle bad habits without talking about them; I beg him to make me according to his heart and always the more weak and despicable I see myself to be, the more beloved I am of God. Source: The Practice of the Presence of God



Beautiful Monday May 18 Also Saint John Paul II's Birthday

Daily Dig for May 18

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Barbara Kingsolver

There once was a time when Thoreau wrote, “I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.” By the power vested in everything living, let us keep to that faith. I’m a scientist who thinks it wise to enter the doors of creation not with a lion tamer’s whip and chair, but with the reverence humankind has traditionally summoned for entering places of worship: a temple, a mosque, or a cathedral. A sacred grove, as ancient as time. Source: Small Wonder Daily Prayer for May 18 Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God'’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. Romans 8:15b–17, NIV Lord our God, Father of us all, grant that we may know something of you in our hearts. Each one of us is different, with his own particular needs, but we are all your children and should all become children of your Spirit. Then even in the difficulties of life, in the many struggles, temptations, and sorrows, we can keep up our courage and remain in the Spirit, who is victorious in every aspect of life. Protect and strengthen us on all our ways. We praise you for all you have done and for all the help you have given us. Amen. 



Saturday May 16 Holy Spirit , Come with Your Peace

 

 

 

 

Daily Dig for May 16

Eberhard Arnold

Because we ignore the sacrifices that lead to peace, we know nothing of God’s will to unite or of his well-considered thoughts of unity. Peace blooms on the soil of genuine truthfulness that is shown only in a life sacrificed to the utmost and spent in unarmed but all-out combat against any opposition to unity and constructive peace. The heart that makes the perfect sacrifice – the mightiest power of all worlds – is the only strength that can bring peace. Source: Innerland Daily Prayer for May 16 Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. John 17:3, NIV Lord God, we thank you that you have revealed life in Jesus Christ. Grant that we may enter this life through the grace you have given us to recognize Jesus Christ as our Lord, to believe in him, and to hope for all the good still to come as the fruit of his suffering and resurrection. May the glory of the Living One be revealed to the dead throughout the whole world so that even the dead and the unbelieving may be awakened and see his life. Keep us true to what you have given us. Strengthen our faith and endurance in all our trials. Let your name soon be honored among all people so that hatred may cease and the coming of your great day may be foretold in changed hearts and changed thoughts. Protect us this night. Bless us and help us again and again as you have promised. Amen. 

May 14, 2015 Blessing of Sister Claire Andre's Grave Stone by Friar Steve Kluge

Thursday May 14 Ascension Thursday





Daily Dig

 

Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt

If you seek God alone, then that which is from God in others will come alive, whether or not you can see it. Jesus sees what is of God in others, even if it is still hidden as a tiny seed. This is the gospel you must proclaim. Preach it simply. Jesus values each person; he sees their dignity as God created them. He came to rid every person of shame and self-contempt, of the feeling that they are nothing and can do nothing, the feeling that they have ruined everything and nothing can change that, the feeling that all is hopeless.

Source: Everyone Belongs to God

 

Daily Prayer for May 14

Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Romans 5:1-2, NIV Lord our God, almighty and holy One, whose glory shines upon the earth so that we may find joy in you and may live rejoicing in all your loving-kindness, spread out your hands in blessing over all people. Spread your blessing over the happy and the sad, over the courageous and the weak. Shepherd them in your love, in the great grace you have given through Jesus Christ, confirmed in us through the Holy Spirit. Do not let us remain degraded and worthless. Lift our hearts above what is transitory, for you have given us something eternal to live by. Help us every day so that we can reach the goal you have set for us, for many others, and finally for all peoples of the earth. Amen.

 

Reflections on Ascension By Óscar Romero “The church will be fair to see, perennially young, attractive in every age, as long as she is faithful to the Spirit that floods her and she reflects that Spirit through her communities, through her pastors, through her very life.” Two selections from our free ebook, The Violence of Love, for Ascension day. Read Romero’s words...



Wednesday May 13 Feast of Our Lady of Fatima. Intercede for us against Violence Prayers also for the Amtrak Train with 6 Dead

We pray today for those killed in the Amtrak Train from Washington DC to New York

 

 

 

 

 

Daily Prayer for May 13

Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt

For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6, NIV Lord our God, whose light shines out of the darkness and gleams brightly into our hearts, we thank you for all the goodness you allow us to see. We want to see your goodness clearly and have confidence in it, no matter how much around us is dark and disquieting. We want to remain firm and full of trust, looking to what you have put into our hearts so that we may come to know you. Be with us with your Spirit. Lead us to realize ever more clearly that we are made for your honor. Amen.

 

 

 

Daily Dig for May 13 Maya Angelou Many believe that they need company at any cost, and certainly if a thing is desired at any cost, it will be obtained at all costs. We need to remember and to teach our children that solitude can be a much-to-be-desired condition. Not only is it acceptable to be alone, at times it is positively to be wished for. It is in the interludes between being in company that we talk to ourselves. In the silence we listen to ourselves. Then we ask questions of ourselves. We describe ourselves, and in the quietude we may even hear the voice of God. Source: Even The Stars Look Lonesome

www.plough.com



May 12 Tuesday. We pray for all who are suffering in Nipal and The West

 

Rhododendrons in our Garden

 

Daily Dig for May 12

Anna Mow

No one is ever useless to God. No one who can pray is ever useless. There are many people to perform the needed activities, but too few to take the time for prayer. I suppose the hardest thing about being an invalid, about being “useless,” is that it is much harder to receive help than to give it. It is much harder to be still than to be active. That is why it is important to learn how to be a gracious receiver as well as a gracious giver. Source: Two or Ninety Two

 

 

Daily Prayer for May 12

Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt

Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” John 14:23, NIV Lord our God, we thank you that we can be children of your Spirit. We thank you that because you have called us, we receive eternal gifts that enable us to stand firm even when many sorrows and burdens weigh us down. For you are our life, and in all the darkness, even that of death, you give us light and strength and joyful hope. Keep these alive in us. May an ever brighter light shine on all that you have already put into our hearts, on all that draws us daily to you. Amen.



Monday May 11 Prayer

Daily Dig for May 11 Mother Teresa God cannot fill what is full. He can fill only emptiness – deep poverty – and your “yes” [to Jesus] is the beginning of being or becoming empty. It is not how much we really “have” to give, but how empty we are, so that we can receive fully in our life and let him live his life in us. In you today he wants to relive his complete submission to his father – allow him to do so. It does not matter what you feel, but what he feels in you. Take away your eyes from yourself and rejoice that you have nothing – that you are nothing – that you can do nothing. Source: Letter, Feb. 7, 1974, quoted in Albert Huart, S.J., “Mother Teresa: Joy in Darkness,” Vidyajyoti Journal of Theological Reflection (Sept. 2000): 658   Daily Prayer for May 11   Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. Colossians 3:3–4, NIV Lord our God, we thank you for making us into a community whose refuge and certainty is Jesus Christ. We thank you that he will not remain hidden from us forever; his life will be revealed, perhaps soon, in our times. Lord God, how long, how long have your children waited! Now a new time is coming, the end of this age, and we rejoice in this even if you must also judge and punish. No matter what happens, we are at peace. We live in your future, in the future of Jesus Christ, in the great day when humankind will receive the Spirit and their old works will come to an end. Be with us. Bless us this night and help us in what we have most on our hearts. We have so much on our hearts, but you see everything and you know our needs. Lord God, your grace will overcome all earthly troubles, and your name will be glorified on earth if only there is a church that believes and truly awaits your help. Praise to your name! You have done immeasurably much for us and you will do even more. Amen.



Sunday May 10 and Mothers' Day

Daily Dig for May Henri Nouwen Patience is a hard discipline. It is not just waiting until something happens over which we have no control: the arrival of the bus, the end of the rain, the return of a friend, the resolution of a conflict. Patience is not waiting passively until someone else does something. Patience asks us to live the moment to the fullest, to be completely present to the moment, to taste the here and now, to be where we are. When we are impatient, we try to get away from where we are. We behave as if the real thing will happen tomorrow, later, and somewhere else. Be patient and trust that the treasure you are looking for is hidden in the ground on which you stand. Source: Bread For The Journey

www.plough.com Daily Prayer for May 9 Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt The sun will no more be your light by day, nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory. Isaiah 60:19, NIV Lord, our God and Father, we thank you that in all the misery and night on earth you have let your hope dawn as a light shining for all your people - all who honor your name, all who dwell in Jesus Christ through forgiveness of sins and through resurrection to a new life. Praise to your name. Praise to Jesus Christ. Praise to the Holy Spirit, who can comfort, teach, and guide our hearts. O Father in heaven, we can never thank you enough that we are allowed to be a people full of grace, full of hope, and full of confidence that your kingdom is coming at last to bring salvation and peace for the whole world. Amen. www.plough.com



May 8 A Cloud of Witnesses by Friar Casey

Our lives are not our own. From womb to tomb, we are bound to others. Past and present. And by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future."

No one is an island. Our actions now have an effect on others well beyond our own time and place.

Last weekend, a few of the student friars watched what I found to be one of the most interesting and thought-provoking movies I had ever seen: Cloud Atlas. Besides being an ascetically imaginative movie with incredible scenery, special effects, and makeup, the directing of the story was truly fascinating. Unlike most movies that have a protagonist, a conflict, and a resolution, and present events in the order in which they happened, this movie interlaces six different stories, each based in different places and spanning multiple centuries, and progresses thematically, not linearly. Added to the peculiarity of the plot was that the small cast of 13 actors played a total of 65 characters, some even playing a different character in each time period, often transitioning age, race, and gender. One minute Tom Hanks is a greedy doctor stealing from his patients on a Pacific trading ship in the 19th century, the next he's a physicist working at a San Francisco power plant, the next he's a shepherd in a primitive society years after an alleged fallout in society; he is at one moment the protagonist, the next an extra in another character's story.

Like any great piece of art, the medium is the message in Cloud Atlas, and the message is as complicated, and profound, as its medium: humans are inescapably linked to one another, in person and across human history, and the decisions made before us have a profound effect on our ability to act. What the movie displays so powerfully is that no one is an island and no one's actions affect only them. Everything we do affects people around us. Even the most subtle gestures or the most minor of insults can have lasting impacts on who we are and what we choose to do. And it doesn't stop with us. Having affected someone with our decisions, this other person will inevitably do the same, passing on what they have felt from us to another person. Everything we do to another, whether it be love or hate, heroism or cowardice, charity or greed, inclusivity or racism, can and will be passed on to the next. What one does in one time period, for better or for worse, can be passed on to other times, crossing many generations, geographies and even cultures. In the movie, generations of people continued to make the same mistake, acting towards another as someone had acted to them, inadvertently passing on the decisions of those that had come before them.

An example of the character complexity

While not intending to make a Christian statement, what Cloud Atlas does is present the clearest example of the power of sin to limit our freedom I have ever seen. This was a major topic of discussion with my spiritual director during novitiate. For him, Family of Origin was the answer to almost everything. For any issue I brought up in myself, he worked with me trace it to its origin, the place where I learned to think or act in a certain way. Did I get it from one of my parents, a close friend? And where did they get it from? Their parents? How far back does it go? For him, and other Family of Origin proponents, our values, desires, goals, fears, strengths and weaknesses do not pop out of thin air and they are not systematically chosen by us. No one has the freedom to choose their personality or their fears, but they do have an origin, and left unattended, they will be passed on to others.

All of this may sound rather simple to some, and if you've gotten this far, you might be wondering why I've used up 635 words to say that we're influenced by our parents. As a religious blog, does this have anything to do with Christianity? Yes. The point I'm working to make, the most thought-provoking part of this movie and my time with my spiritual director can be summed up in one line he said during one of our sessions: "So now that you've discovered a defect in yourself that is likely to have been passed down to you through many generations, wouldn't it be something if this defect stopped with you, if you could resolve it in yourself so as to not pass it on to anyone else? Do you think you could bring redemption to your whole family?" Wow. What a thought. Like the characters in the movie, I realized that I was intimately connected with those who had come before me; like the heroic characters in the movie, I realized that I had the ability to bring resolution to potentially hundreds of years of a particular character defect or action by not passing it on myself. In the movie, one racism is passed down for hundreds of years unquestioned until one character chooses to act differently. Done. It will not be passed on to the next generation in that family. What if I could do the same with the fears, insecurities, and inordinate desires I had acquired form others, family or not?

This is where Christ comes into the picture and I depart from the movie. While the movie presents reincarnation as the ultimate principle guiding human souls and potentially offering resolution to sinfulness, we as Christians know that Jesus Christ is the only one capable of breaking our cycle of sin in an absolute sense. Whereas we will inevitably pass down some form of alienation due to sin, alienation from God and from ourselves, Jesus was and in the resolution to all sin. Faced with everything that we face, experiencing all that humanity experiences, Jesus acted in perfect obedience and returned nothing but love for all the hate he received. He did not perpetuate the sins of our fathers (and mothers); he transformed them into love. Rather than acting as the world does, returning violence for violence, he freely accepted his death, allowing God to transform death into life with the resurrection. In him, and through his grace, we are given not only the example of how to live, to transform the errs of those before us into love, we are given the strength and ability to do so perfectly. When we act as Christ did and bring resolution to a complex world of sin, it is in fact Christ working in us, bringing resolution and redemption to hundreds of years of alienation and defect, transforming opportunities for sin into opportunities for love and grace. While Cloud Atlas does not take the message of redemption to this extent, it does an incredible job of showing the effect our actions can have not only on ourselves, but all of history.

***

If you're thinking about running out right now and getting this movie for the next family night, I do offer a strong disclaimer. This movie is rated R for a reason, and I would not recommend it for all audiences. The overall message is a powerful one, but often the way that message is depicted is through less than admirable actions.

friarcasey | May 7, 2015 at 2:50 pm | Tags: Christ, Cloud Atlas, human interaction, human interrelatedness, Law of the Cross, original sin, R rated Christian movies, Redemption, resolution, social sin, Tom Hanks | Categories: Discernment | URL: http://wp.me/p1HGZ8-AT

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May 6 Wednesday Forgive others because God forgives us

Daily Dig for May 6 Our Angel,  Most of the Time       C. S. Lewis To forgive the incessant provocations of daily life – to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son – how can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night, “Forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” We are offered forgiveness on no other terms. To refuse it is to refuse God’s mercy for ourselves. There is no hint of exceptions and God means what he says. Source: The Weight of Glory

www.plough.com Daily Prayer for May 6 Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt I heard a loud voice proclaiming from the throne: “Now at last God has his dwelling among men! He will dwell among them and they shall be his people, and God himself will be with them. He will wipe every tear from their eyes; there shall be an end to death, and to mourning and crying and pain; for the old order has passed away!” Revelation 21:3–4, NEB Lord our God, we look to you and to Jesus Christ our Savior. Continually renew your grace and your power in our lives, we pray. Renew your grace and power, that we may have light even in dark and distressing times and through the Savior may overcome as we wait faithfully for your kingdom. Help us to be ready to take anything upon ourselves, to serve you with body and soul, with all we have and are. May we belong to the hosts of those who go to meet you, who wait for your coming kingdom, which will bring comfort to the world and to all people who now suffer and grieve. O Lord our God, have mercy on our times and on our world. Grant that with thanks and praise we may soon see the signs of the fulfillment of your promises. Amen. www.plough.com

Tuesday May 5 Smile for the Living

 

 

 

Daily Dig for May 5 J. Heinrich Arnold Jesus came to prepare us for the kingdom of God, which has not yet come, as we know only too well. He told us that the kingdom will be among us when we love God with our whole heart and soul, and when we love our neighbor as ourselves. If only we would do this, not just in words but in deed! Source: Discipleship Daily Prayer for May 5 Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. Genesis 32:10, NIV Lord our God, we are not worthy of all the mercy and faithfulness you show to us. We thank you for your love and ask you to keep our hearts united in the hope we have together for all things. Keep our hearts united, that again and again we can receive something new from your mighty hand. Keep us true to the calling you have given us. Let light shine out into the world, right into the dark places. Remember those all over the world who are sighing to you, longing that in your great and wonderful goodness light may come to the peoples and to the nations through some deed from your hand. Amen.

www.plough.coChristoph Friedrich Blumhardt