With growth into adulthood, responsibilities claimed me, so many heavy coats. I didn’t choose them, I don’t fault them, but it took time to reject them.
— Mary Oliver, Upstream
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So many coats – Mary Oliver
Tag: Mary Oliver
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What did we do?
What happened in January?
becomingflame.com went live
On January 1st, becomingflame.com went live with its first post and About page.
scripture
We focused on scriptures that talk about light (as opposed to darkness), beginning with the first ‘word’ of creation in Genesis, moving on to the Word who was with God before creation, who is the light of the world, the life of all people. We talked about the choice between light and darkness. Finally, we talked about being the light of the world ourselves.
- Let there be light
- Life and light
- Light and darkness
- Jesus, the light of the world
- Us, the light of the world
prayers
We looked at a few prayers for different situations.
other writings
We looked at writings from Thomas Merton, Mary Oliver, and Frederick Buechner that emphasized how the anxiety and concerns of daily life can snuff out our flame, the flicker of our ‘real self’. We were repeatedly encouraged to pay attention in order tend to that flame.
- Thomas Merton on the ‘real self’
- Mary Oliver on ‘Attention’
- Thomas Merton – The First Responsibility
- Praying – a poem by Mary Oliver
- Frederick Buechner – A million things
comments
It’s been great to have a conversation with Robert (whose blog I follow and enjoy). Would be great to have others join in 🙂
thank you
Finally, it’s been a joy for me to do this and to know that you take the time to check in. Grace and peace to all…
dw
Photo by João Silas on Unsplash – cropped to fit theme by dw
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.”
John 8:12, NRSV Bible with Apocrypha
Jesus is all flame; he is the light of the world, the light of life for all people. Our desire to become all flame, as Abba Joseph puts it, is simply another way of saying we want to love Jesus so much we will follow him no matter what, just to be with him in his mission of truth, mercy, healing, provision, redemption, justice, and love.
I regret that I regularly and habitually focus on the ashes and not the light, as Thomas Merton writes; every time I do that, I forfeit an experience of the very best for something less than that. As Mary Oliver says, when I do that “there is something wrong, I know”.
- What is your response to Jesus’ claim to be “the light of the world”?
- How do you manage in our culture that is designed and engineered to capture our attention in a million different ways?
- What is your experience of “light” vs. “darkness” in your life?
- Take a moment to write down what comes to your mind. Maybe share it with a loved one later.
Gracious God, in your mercy, enable us to follow Jesus more and more each day.
Grace and peace to you…
dw
Image – Rembrandt portrait of Jesus from wikiart.org
becoming flame 