Matthew 2:12 (NRSVUE)

And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod,

they left for their own country

by another road.

I walk by the light I have been given.

Teresa of Ávila

“Let nothing disturb you,

Let nothing frighten you,

All things are passing away:

God never changes.

Patience obtains all things.

Whoever has God lacks nothing;

God alone suffices.”

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Psalm 139:1–5 (NRSVUE, abridged)

O Lord, you have searched me and known me.

You know when I sit down and when I rise up;

you discern my thoughts from far away.

You search out my path and my lying down,

and are acquainted with all my ways.

Even before a word is on my tongue,

O Lord, you know it completely.

I am seen and known by God.

George Herbert

“Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,

Guilty of dust and sin.

But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack

From my first entrance in,

Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,

If I lacked anything.”

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Luke 24:30–31 (NRSVUE, abridged)

When he was at the table with them,

he took bread, blessed and broke it,

and gave it to them.

Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him…

and he vanished from their sight.

My eyes are opening.

Emily Dickinson

“The Soul should always stand ajar,

That if the Heaven inquire,

He will not be obliged to wait,

Or shy of troubling her.

Depart, before the Host has slid

The bolt unto the Door—

Then will the Soul return her trust

Without distrust or more.”

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Exodus 3:1–6 (NRSVUE)

Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian;

he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.

There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush;

he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed.

Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight,

and see why the bush is not burned up.”

When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see,

God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!”

And he said, “Here I am.”

I am learning to see.

William Blake, from *Auguries of Innocence* (c. 1803)

“To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an hour.

A Robin Red breast in a Cage

Puts all Heaven in a Rage.”

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Isaiah 60:1–2 (NRSVUE)

Arise, shine; for your light has come,

and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

For darkness shall cover the earth,

and thick darkness the peoples;

but the Lord will arise upon you,

and his glory will appear over you.

God’s light meets me where I am.

Charles Wesley

“Christ, whose glory fills the skies,

Christ, the true, the only Light,

Sun of Righteousness, arise,

Triumph o’er the shades of night;

Day-spring from on high, be near;

Day-star, in my heart appear.”

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Micah 6:8 (NRSVUE)

He has told you, O mortal, what is good;

and what does the Lord require of you

but to do justice, and to love kindness,

and to walk humbly with your God?

What I offer is enough.

Dorothy Day

“We cannot love God

unless we love each other,

and to love we must know each other.

We know Him in the breaking of bread,

and we are not alone anymore.

He has given us each other.”

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Lamentations 3:22–23 (NRSVUE)

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases,

his mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning;

great is your faithfulness.

I begin again in grace.

Henri Nouwen, from *The Return of the Prodigal Son*

“Returning is not a one-time event.

It is a long and painful process.

It is the continuous choice

to trust that there will be a homecoming,

even when you feel lost.

The movement of returning

is not a straight line.

It is a series of small choices,

often made in weakness,

to step toward love again and again.

The great gift of God

is that we are always welcomed home.

No matter how far we have wandered,

no matter how often we have failed,

the arms of mercy remain open.”

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Proverbs 16:9 (NRSVUE)

The human mind plans the way,

but the Lord directs the steps.

I set my heart toward love.

Howard Thurman

“Don’t ask what the world needs.

Ask what makes you come alive,

and go do it.

Because what the world needs

is people who have come alive.”

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