April 1, 2025

SCRIPTURE  Luke 9:10-11 On their return the apostles told Jesus all they had done. Then, taking them along, he slipped quietly into a city called Bethsaida. When the crowds found out about it, they followed him, and he welcomed them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God and healed those who needed to be cured. WORDS OF HOPE Jesus sneaking into a city seems strange, but he had become a celebrity, and everyone wanted to see and hear him. I suspect Jesus and his apostles got overwhelmed with crowds and yet we see Jesus welcomed them and began teaching. For a celebrity, “slipping quietly” into anywhere is impossible. I’m sure their lives are exhausting having to face the constant barrage of fans, yet some of them do it so well it seems effortless. It reminds me of a time when I met George Burns. He was having dinner at The Palm restaurant and as I walked by his table I noticed him and said hello. I briefly told him how much I admired his work and then started to leave. Graciously, he shook my hand and asked my name. We chatted for a few moments, and I will never forget it. He could have been annoyed, but he showed me grace. Jesus did the same thing. Not only did he start teaching and healing people, in later passages he feeds five thousand with a few loves and a couple of fish. His hospitality and grace are the point of that story. I believe the miracle is secondary to his attitude for me. Exhibiting grace and modeling kindness goes a long way toward bringing the kingdom of heaven to earth. PRAYER May I learn hospitality and grace and exhibit it to everyone I meet. Amen DEVOTION AUTHOR Hardy Haberman

SCRIPTURE Isaiah 54.1-10 “To me this is like the days of Noah, when I swore that the waters of Noah would never again cover the earth. So now I have sworn not to be angry with you, never to rebuke you again. Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,” says the Lord, who has compassion on you. WORDS OF HOPE Isaiah’s words from God are comforting today, considering the hill-shaking turbulence we human beings constantly visit upon our planet, whether it is drilling for fossil fuel or destroying forests for urban expansion and cattle pastures. Disturbing the peace just seems to be a part of human nature that will always be with us, yet God’s unfailing love and compassion for us remains constant and unshaken in a world still comparable to the Days of Noah. Whenever I have told the story of Noah and his family to children, their reaction to the part about the corruption that preceded the Great Flood has usually been rather passive. They are familiar with the whole story and are waiting to hear the part about the animals, all of whom were blameless in the acts of humanity that led to the judgment. Children look forward to seeing the animals peacefully parading to the ark where they will be kept safe and secure thanks to God’s love and respect for them. I have never lost my childhood affinity for animals and my respect for their essential roles in a healthy ecology grows by the day. The ones we get to know best are also reminders of so many of God’s attributes. A faithful dog’s unfailing love for us will not be shaken. I also found this to be true of a cockatoo who was part of my life for over 40 years. A slumbering cat on the front porch is the image of peace, trust, and comfort. With no animal living in my house these days, I’ve developed a minor zoo on that porch, with late night visits from opossums and racoons who share the food I first left there for neighborhood cats. Now I leave treats especially for them as well. I live in a wooded neighborhood that had been their exclusive environment for countless wildlife generations. Peace offerings of food are the least I can do in a covenant of cooperation with God’s Creation. PRAYER Thank you for your unfailing love for every member of your Creation. May we strive to exemplify your compassion to every species, including our own. DEVOTION AUTHOR Dan Peeler Order of St. Francis and St. Clare

READING  Contemplative practice is a “heart-centered knowing that is receptive rather than grasping, intuitive rather than logical, and a slow ripening rather than a quick fix. In this inner spaciousness we begin to transform our wounded and broken places to remember our original wholeness. Slowly we become people who live in and respond to the world through love. Becoming people who live in the fullness of love is the deepest hunger of all. “ Christine Valters Paintner WORDS OF HOPE In this year’s Lenten book study, deeply rooted in contemplative practice, one of the weekly exercises is lectio divina, a type of holy reading, for passages from the desert fathers and mothers. Recently after a story in which Abba Arsenius is held up as an icon, Paintner asks us to “imagine that [the Abba ] blesses you with simplicity and openness. He extends his hands to you and offers the gift of a handmade empty clay bowl. Receive it in your open hands and spend a few moments pondering the inner spaciousness the bowl creates.” I didn’t have to imagine; I knew that bowl: my Hopi Heart Bowl, as I call it, brought back from the Old Oraibi community in Arizona many years ago and used in classes and groups over decades to hold prayer requests, forgiveness needs, and the names of loved ones who have died. This season I sit with it during my morning prayer time. Running my hands over its sides, I feel the contours of the cool clay and seek out the one hairline crack in the upper edge. I remember standing in the home of the woman who made the bowl with her own hands. She was not a famous potter, but one who lovingly created it and painted the black heart designs in the Hopi style. When I discovered the crack, for a moment I was tempted to set it back on the shelf, but quickly, without fully knowing why, decided to purchase it—beautiful and flawed together. Now I hold it before me in prayer asking God to let its emptiness teach me what I need to know this Lent. Emptiness—what is it to me? Lack, or need, or loneliness—being without, a kind of poverty. And yet there’s an openness and spaciousness as well. At these associations, tears gather along my eyelids—both grief and gratitude flowing. To try to stop the pain that comes, we often fill up our bowls with media addictions, food, multi-tasking, working ourselves into exhaustion. But here is a call to allow the pain of this emptiness that I might know the fullness of what only God can give. As I open to the meaning of this practice during Lent, one scripture from Philippians 2 comes clearly to mind: “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross.” PRAYER This Lent, O God, let us sit with open hands, empty hands before you, that our hearts may be transformed in your love. Amen. DEVOTION AUTHOR Dr Pat Saxon

SCRIPTURE  Luke 13:20-21 Again he asked, “What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.” WORDS OF HOPE I find it amazing that the images that Jesus uses in his parables are timeless, that they are equally as relevant to us in 2025 as they were back in Jesus’s day. As an avid bread baker, I particularly like this one. Over time, I have read it several ways. I used to interpret the yeast as the Holy Spirit working in and through the flour, which is metaphorically us. But lately, I have decided I would rather see myself as the yeast because yeast is a living organism, albeit a fungus, that needs care and feeding, as I do. The flour then is the world around me. A loaf of bread is the result of how I interact with the world around me. In the making of bread, yeast consumes sugars and starches and produces carbon dioxide. This happens during a fermentation process that requires the careful combination of ingredients with the yeast…and time. The resultant carbon dioxide then gets integrated into the dough’s structure and causes the bread to rise, determining its height, density, and taste of the loaf. Just as yeast does, we consume what we are fed. If fed properly, we are activated and work within “the dough” to create a well-leavened, well-raised, world around us. The teachings of Jesus become our sugars and starches. Through our time of prayer and study, the “fermentation process,” we are fed and nourished so that we can do our part to mix with “the flour” and create a beautiful world. Yeast that is not fed well, that is combined with water that is too hot or too cold or too little or too much salt, will die. We too will die spiritually when we are not nourished by the word of God and do not giver it time to work, to ferment, in our souls. Carbon dioxide is the good that comes from the fermentation process of well-fed yeast acting with the flour. Through our “fermentation process” with God, the Holy Spirit bubbling up in us works through us so that we can become the hands and feet of Jesus in the world. Seeing carbon dioxide as a metaphor for the Holy Spirit may take some more thought. This may be a good point of reflection on this day, National Science Appreciation Day. Biblically speaking, yeast is associated with sin, hence the reason that the Passover bread is unleavened. Perhaps this is another reason to see myself as the yeast. I am human therefore I am with sin. Despite this, in a healthy environment in which I am free by God, just like the fermented yeast in a leavened loaf, I can do good things in the world. Enjoy a good piece of bread today. As you taste it, think about its humble start - the grain in the field, water, salt, and the fungus known as yeast and how they all work together over time to create something healthy and beautiful. While savoring the bread, meditate on the idea that the kingdom of God is “like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds [of flour] until it worked all through the dough.” PRAYER Creator God, nourish me and work through me so that I can do my part to help the world around me truly be the kingdom of God. Amen DEVOTION AUTHOR Kris Baker Order St. Francis and St. Clare

READING The proper study of Man is anything but Man; and the most improper job of any man, even saints (who at any rate were at least unwilling to take it on), is bossing other men. Not one in a million is fit for it, and least of all those who seek the opportunity. -J.R.R. Tolkien from The Tolkien Letters WORDS OF HOPE Today is Tolkien reading day. Most of us were familiar with his works are probably thinking of The Hobbit or the Lord of the Rings. Tolkien was a prolific writer and not only wrote fiction, and a contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary but was a great communicator through letters. He was also a devout Roman Catholic. The above quote from one of his letters caused me to reflect on the life of Jesus and those we think of as Saints. To me the quote above is almost the backwards way of describing the servant leader we think of when we think of Jesus. Of course Jesus didn’t really need to study humankind; he was well aware from the beginning of the nature of humanity. He does not want to boss his followers around, though he did ask them to do things. And he didn’t particularly seem to seek the opportunity, but by his very nature attracted people to himself. But I am also reminded of a story from the life of Saint Francis. It was a time when Francis actually bossed someone around. One of Francis’s followers, Brother Rufino, was ordered to go preach. Although Rufino came from one of the most prominent families in Assisi, he asked to be excused as he did not see himself as one to stand in front of a crowd. Francis became upset and told Rufino that not only would he preach, but he would preach naked as he had come into the world. Rufino obeyed and went into the pulpit in the Assisi without clothes. The congregation began to laugh at him. In the meantime, Francis began to reconsider what he had done. Reflecting on Rufino’s quick obedience, the second time, and on the fact that he had asked the son of one of the most prominent families in town to stand naked before everyone, Francis stripped naked, went to the pulpit where Rufino was and began to preach so marvelously, even though he was without clothes, that people in the congregation began to weep. In rereading the story of Saint Francis in light of Tolkien’s statement, I almost wondered if that story was something that influenced Tolkien. Tolkien is not deriding leadership; he is demeaning being a boss, a power seeking control freak. I’m certain most of us can think back to people who we called our bosses. Some of them were bosses; some of them were servant leaders. At least I hope you can say that; fortunately, I can. So, in your reflection time today, think back to those who were “in charge” over you. Think about the lessons you can learn both from the bosses and from the servant leaders. Reflect back on the life of Jesus and this story of Saint Francis. And keep them in mind whenever you find yourself thrust into a position of leadership. PRAYER Gracious God, you have given us examples through Jesus, and those holy people you have sent to be examples to us in our lives. Help us to always live up to these. May we always strive to be servants; and when we are called upon to be servant leaders. DEVOTION AUTHOR Weber Baker Order of Saint Francis and Saint Clare.