Endures all things
Thursday, April 23, 2020 at 7:47AM
Robert Gallagher

This I command you, to love one another. John 15:17

We are not only to persevere and endure in this time of trial. We are to follow the way of the Christ, who in his time of suffering, in his endurance—loved. Loved those near at hand, loved the entire creation. His resurrection is in one sense a magnification and a full expression of that love that we saw in his life and upon the cross.

The people, things and circumstances of my life are different from what they were six weeks ago. Endurance and love have taken a changed pathway. Judy, my sister-in-law is more frequently present in emails, Michelle and I say Wednesday Evening Prayer on Zoom rather than in person, and on my rare times in the drug and grocery stores I now see the clerks as brave. When I pray for the people on today’s page in my blue intercession book I stop and send them a message. In taking my walk each day, I pass others, some in mask, some not—and need to set aside judgments toward those not engaging the practice I have taken on. At 8:00 each evening I hear the yelling and screaming of young people from their balconies and search to find compassion toward their annoying noise. And I notice how a particular icon on the wall draws my attention and prayer.

The Promise taken by Professed Members and Associates in the Order of the Ascension is

To seek the presence of Jesus Christ in the people, things and circumstances of life through stability, obedience and conversion of life.

Benedict bids me to “Listen carefully … with the ear of your heart.”  He’s just reminding me of the Holy Spirit’s inner nudges. If I stay with the stability of prayer and relationship, if I listen from within the love of Christ, then new ways will open themselves to me. I see and hear differently. The things, people and circumstances will offer new opportunities to repent, to intercess, to love.

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

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Postings on the inner life and the virus

You know, and they know, that they are offering their lives      

Intercessions and the virus  

Solitude

The mystery of the cross

Solitude in Surrey 

We'll meet again

God's not indifferent to our pain 

Endures all things

Becoming an Associate of a Religious Order

People Touch

Spiritual vitality and authenticity 

The path of servanthood

Down into the mess

Missing the Eucharist 

In you we live

Faith to perceive

Faith to perceive: In your great compassion  

Turn everything that happens to account

We no longer know what to do

 

Postings on Parish Development during the Virus

Power from the center pervades the whole 

To everything there is a season

Faith to perceive: Remaining inseparable

Article originally appeared on Congregational Development (http://www.congregationaldevelopment.com/).
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