I receive a daily reflection from the Church of Our Savior in Washington, DC. This is a very unique community of Christians that have an authentic ministry to the poor and marginalized in our Nation's capitol. The founding leaders were Gordon and Mary Cosby who believed that to live the Christian life there must be an inward journey to grow in love of God, self and others and an outward journey to help mend some part of creation. Read more about this amazing ministry here.
The reflection below arrived on Saturday in the midst of one of the most loveliest days I have ever experienced in Northeast Ohio. Caryll Houselander was a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical artist, mystic, popular writer and poet who died in 1954. This is a beautiful reflection on "Rest as Communion" and is taken from "The Passion of the Infant Christ in A Child in Winter" by Thomas Hoffman.
"Think of a child asleep in her mother's arms; the abandon with which she gives herself to sleep can only be because she has complete trust in the arms that hold her. She is not lying asleep on that heart because she is worn out with anxiety. She is asleep there because it is a delight to her to be asleep there.
"The mother rests too. She rests in her child's rest.... Rest is a communion between them. It is a culmination of content. On the child's part, utter trust in her mother; on the mother's part, sheer joy in the power of her love to sustain her life.
"Such as this was the rest of God in the beginning of time, when God had created the world. Our rest in a world that is full of unrest is Christ's trust in his Faither; our peace in a world without peace is our surrender, complete as the surrender of the sleeping child to her mother, of the Christ in us, to God who is both Father and Mother."
What a beautiful expression of how we might be in Christ Jesus our Lord - fully trusting and joyful in the power of God's love to sustain our lives. May these words bring you comfort, peace and hope this very day.
Love One Another - Brian
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