LOVE - PRAY - HOPE

“We have no reason to fear when the heat comes, when the drought comes, because when we love our God with all our heart, we fall in love with Love, and we begin to see the world as God sees it. Nourished by the river of Christ’s Light, we let ourselves rest in the Oneness of God’s being. And then we find God’s presence everywhere, whatever the weather of the world happens to be doing.”

In this poetic sermon drawing on scriptural images of trees, Br. Nicholas Bartoli invites us to put down our roots and drink deep from the eternal river of Christ’s Light.

“As a people we are beginning to ask ourselves what kind of freedom our common life enshrines. One of the many assumptions our culture relies upon is the idea that freedom is chiefly about “choice.” The Spirit asks us to consider the freedom we rightly celebrate as Christians, compared with the world’s many pseudo-freedoms.”

Br. Sean Glenn returns to Genesis for a revelation of what freedom really looks like.

“We have lost touch with the power of the natural world to speak to us of God. We have become alienated from the natural world. The deepest danger is that we lose our sense of the sacredness of the world.”

In this ode to the natural world, Br. Geoffrey Tristram invites us to rediscover God’s glorious creation and be touched by the very hand of God.

“The version of the Gospel which probably has greatest authority for you is the Gospel according to You. What has been revealed to you, what has proven inviting and necessary for you? What is the essence of Jesus’ work and words embodied within you? That is so important for you to hear, remember, and claim. It’s your vocation. It’s why you are still alive, today.”

Br. Curtis Almquist urges us to listen for our vocation, which means accepting our true self.

“There is a lesson for us and for our culture in this morning’s gospel, and it requires us to train ourselves to let go of the control we think we have. It asks us to admit we need one another.”

Br. Sean Glenn recognizes our deep need for relationship and cooperation with others, who teach us, challenge us, and reveal God to us.