Beatitude Contemplative Mornings

Consider Luke 12:27-32. The passage is familiar, “Consider in the lilies of the field…” The Message translation reads,

"Walk into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They don’t fuss with their appearance—but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. If God gives such attention to the wildflowers, most of them never even seen, don’t you think he’ll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you?

What I’m trying to do here is get you to relax, not be so preoccupied with getting so you can respond to God’s giving. People who don’t know God and the way he works fuss over these things, but you know both God and how he works. Steep yourself in God-reality, God-initiative, God-provisions. You’ll find all your everyday human concerns will be met. Don’t be afraid of missing out. You’re my dearest friends! The Father wants to give you the very kingdom itself." (MSG)

As we are coming out of a pandemic, out of a crazy year demanding constant adapting and as we head into summer, can we possibly relax?

We are invited to relax, to relax into God’s care, presence, and provision. I love the way the Message says, “Steep yourself in God-reality, God initiative, God-provisions” in its translation. Contemplative practices (such as guided silence, visio divina, lectio divina, the prayer of examen) create space for us to steep ourselves. Like a teabag in water, we need to just be—be still, be silent, and be alone—and to let the beauty, truth, and goodness of Jesus into every part of us.

Over this nine-week series we will focus on one beatitude at a time. Dallas Willard has said that the Beatitudes are “hope for the hopeless.” The Beatitudes are not spiritual conditions to which we aspire but conditions we find ourselves in. He writes,

"They serve to clarify Jesus’ fundamental message: the free availability of God’s rule and righteousness to all of humanity through reliance upon Jesus himself, the person now loose in the world among us. They do this simply by taking those who, from the human point of view, are regarded as most hopeless, most beyond all possibility of God’s blessing or even interest, and exhibiting them as God’s touch and abundant provision from the heavens." - Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, 116

Join us this spring and summer as we steep ourselves in God-reality, God initiative, and God-provisions.

We will begin Wednesday, May 12, and continue every Wednesday until July 7. We will meet from 6:30 – 7:15 am. The cost is $29, but scholarships are available. Come as you are!