Weekly Inspiration (4/26/24)

“Have we missed seeing the things God is doing now in our lives and in our world? Jesus invites us to live with joy, constantly alert for signs of God’s grace around and within us. God is present and at work. Grace and salvation are here, and are available to us in abundance. There is cause for authentic celebration!”

Br. David Vryhof
Society of Saint John the Evangelist

Poem of the Week

The Listener

by Steve Garnaas-Holmes

  While they were talking and discussing,

          Jesus himself came near and went with them,

          but their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

                       —Luke 24.15-16

The Listener never leaves your side, but you won't hear.

The Beloved holds your heart like a beautiful secret

they will never spill or forget, but that, too, is secret.

An envelope of humming bears you through this world, unheard,

a receiving, like the sound of wind in trees,

or the ocean, that we forget, even when we’re at the shore.

A gravitational hold that does not lose us or forget us.

Even in the most exotic jungle, the farthest desert,

you are recognized, your story heard clearly.

When, feeling abandoned, you cry out, “My God, my God,“

it is the Beloved crying out in you.

You who are despondent, remember:

knowing is partial, awareness is fickle, feeling is fleeting,

but the divine presence, attending, is constant.

The whole distance to Emmaus and back

is the breathing in and out of God