Weekly Inspiration (8/17/22)

True intercession, the sort that Jesus shares with the Father, is not just a shopping list of the needs of the world, nor is it informing God of something he knows already. Rather, it is a profound, loving, and costly holding up of others who are on our hearts before God. True intercession is being with God, with the people on our hearts.

-Br. Geoffrey Tristram,
Society of Saint John the Evangelist

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Poem of the Week

There appeared a woman with a spirit
that had crippled her for eighteen years.
She was bent over
and was quite unable to stand up straight.
—Luke 13.11

Bowing, in a posture of subservience,
as if unequal, inferior.

Facing the floor, not the horizon,
the dirt, not the future.

Unable to look eye to eye,
intimately, on the level.

Familiar with pain,
her constant companion.

Unable to stand tall, take a stand,
look up, raise a hand.

Unable to embrace, to dance,
to work, to contribute.

Yet worthy, beloved,
gifted, wise and strong.

Not helpless, but patient,
trusting, accepting, and at peace.

Grace reshaped her spine
to match her heart.

- Steve Garnaas-Holmes