Weekly Inspiration (1/8/24)

“Stop what you’re doing. Take a break. Go outside. Change perspective. Take deep breaths. Slow yourself down. Unplug. Disconnect from devices. Gaze. What catches your eye? What’s beautiful? Hold there. “Be still and know that I am God.” From stillness, what do you know? What are you grateful for?”

Br. Luke Ditewig
Society of Saint John the Evangelist

“A Blessing for the New Year”
by Kayleen Asbo

As the hours of darkness begin to slowly wane from the winter sky,
So too may the fearful places of your heart unclench their grasp on your life.
As the presence of light begins to grow with greater sureness with each passing day,
May your own courage blossom to open more brightly to truth and love.

Let this be the year that you turn off the television and silence the talk radio chatter
in order to pick up the writing pen, the paintbrush,
and watch the candle slowly burn.

May this be the year when you delight
in seeing how much joy you can extravagantly spread.
May you discover just how much beauty you can recklessly shower
upon this thirsty world.

May this be the year that you tune both the dusty piano in the corner
and the inner listening of your care-worn heart
so that both can play in harmony with the chorus of creation.

May you break the invisible yardstick of impossible expectations
and learn that just as you are,
You are enough.

May this be the year that you cease trying to march to an imagined ideal
and instead, wrap your arms around the messy wonder your life really is,
Hold it close
And do the tango

Let this be the year you befriend your soul in its radical particularity,
not forsaking it yet again for the bland demands and cravings of the masses.
Instead, may you elope with the wildness of your own true calling,
marry your soul to its deepest longings
and invite the hungry world to the wedding feast.