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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Psalm 46:10 (NRSVUE)

“Be still, and know that I am God!

I am exalted among the nations,

I am exalted in the earth.”

This moment is where God meets me.

Brother Lawrence

“We can do little things for God;

I turn the cake that is frying on the pan

for love of Him,

and that done,

if there is nothing else to call me,

I prostrate myself in worship

before Him who has given me grace to work.”

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Isaiah 43:18–19 (NRSVUE)

Do not remember the former things,

or consider the things of old.

I am about to do a new thing;

now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness

and rivers in the desert.

I release what no longer gives life.

Thomas Merton

“To let go does not mean to get rid of.

To let go means to let be.

When we let be with compassion,

things come and go on their own.”

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Colossians 1:27 (NRSVUE)

Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Christ lives in me.

Richard Rohr

“The Christ Mystery

is not something to admire from a distance.

It is something to participate in.

God has chosen to dwell

not merely among us,

but within us—

so that divine love

might continue to take flesh

in the world.”

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Matthew 1:23 (NRSVUE)

“Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,

and they shall name him Emmanuel,”

which means, “God is with us.”

God is with us.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from *God Is in the Manger*

“God is not ashamed of the lowliness of human beings.

God marches right in.

God chooses people as his instruments

and performs wonders where one would least expect them.

God is near us—

in the midst of our lives.”

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Luke 2:6–7

While they were there, the time came for Mary to deliver her child.

And she gave birth to her firstborn son

and wrapped him in bands of cloth and laid him in a manger,

because there was no place in the guest room.

God is found in the ordinary.

Madeleine L’Engle, from Walking on Water

“There is nothing so secular

that it cannot be sacred.

And nothing so ordinary

that it cannot be filled with God.

If we believe that God took on flesh,

then every place

where life unfolds

is holy ground.”

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John 1:14 (NRSVUE)

And the Word became flesh and lived among us,

and we have seen his glory,

the glory as of a father’s only son,

full of grace and truth.

God is closer than I imagined.

Meister Eckhart

“God is nearer to me than I am to myself.

My being depends on God’s nearness

and God’s presence within me.

God does not come and go.

God is always here.”

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