Summer – the Season of growth and abundance
The deep urge in our souls wants grounding, needs light, longs for living water, too. We cannot grow on our own any more than any plant in nature can. At the core we know that of our own selves we can do nothing. We are only what we are given, what we are able to receive and return. Fundamentally we are beggars. Every living thing in this world is a beggar.
Summer is a fullness born of need. How wonderfully strange and freeing it is to accept this basic poverty. It makes for mutual acceptance of a fundamental emptiness. It makes us understand that we are part of the whole and therefore one with it. Isn’t our task then to wait in dignity upon what brings us life and so to wait upon each other? (Gunilla Norris – A Mystic Garden)
Summer, the season to grow the fruit of the Spirit…
St Paul tells the people of Galatia… The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22) |
Let this poem help us to listen to the Spirit whispering in the depths of our being…..
O ANTIPHONS FOR SUMMER |
Jesus tells us what is important for fullness of life….
Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and how you are to clothe it. For life means more than food, and the body more than clothing. Think of the ravens. They do not sow or reap; they have no storehouses and no barns; yet God feeds them. And how much more are you worth than the birds! Can any of you, for all your worrying, add a single cubit to your span of life? If the smallest things, therefore, are outside your control, why worry about the rest of life? Think of the flowers; they never have to spin or weave; yet, I assure you, not even Solomon in all his regalia was robed like one of these. Now if that is how God clothes the grass in the field which is there today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, how much more will he look after you, you of little faith! But you, you must not set your hearts on things to eat and things to drink; nor must you worry. It is the pagans of this world who set their hearts on all these things. Your Father well knows you need them. No, set your hearts on the kingdom, and all these other things will be given to you as well. There is no need to be afraid, little flock, for it has pleased your Father to give you the kingdom. (Luke 12:22-32) |
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BRING FORTH THE KINGDOM You are salt for the earth, O people: Salt for the Kingdom of God! Share the flavour of life, O people: Life in the Kingdom of God! Bring forth the Kingdom of mercy, Bring forth the Kingdom of peace; Bring forth the Kingdom of justice, Bring forth the City of God. You are a light on the hill, O people: Light for the City of God! Shine so holy and bright, O people: Shine for the Kingdom of God! You are a seed of the Word, O people: Bring forth the Kingdom of God! Seeds of mercy and seeds of justice, Grow in the Kingdom of God! We are a blest and a pilgrim people: Bound for the Kingdom of God! Love our journey and love our homeland: Love is the Kingdom of God! Marty Haugen - Anthology II © GIA |