We're living in unprecedented times.
How often have you heard or uttered this phrase in the last 2 years? As we continue to walk through this never-ending pandemic, I’m sure that you too are weary. As 2021 ended, it was difficult to get in my traditional “resolution” making mode. What's the point when we don't even know if the next few months will mean traveling to see friends (as some of us so blissfully did in the fall) or hunkering down again (as many of us are doing now). At the end of last year, I began slowly reading Joan Chittister’s new book The Monastic Heart: 50 Simple Practices for a Contemplative and Fulfilling Life.
It is a call to renewed commitment to cultivating our inner lives even when —especially when — we are weary. It is a reminder of the faithful practices that have carried generations of Christians through. Our particular wildness is new, but Christians have lived through the unprecedented for millenia. And they’ve done so by cultivating practices that lead to a richer soul and “monastic heart” without leaving their everyday context.
As we head in 2022, one way we’re seeking to “create a monastery within ourselves” is by memorizing the Psalms. This feels a bit quaint, perhaps even archaic, when I can pull up a Psalm in an instant on my phone. But there is deep power to committing scripture to memory, and this is a practice I’d like to reclaim. There's so many periods of my day where it feels as if the narrative in my head is counter to the narrative of scripture. In these moments, I’d like to have his word not just in my pocket, but deeply within my soul.
That's why I'm committing to memorizing a new Psalm every month and, if this calls to you, I hope you'll join me. We’ll share a Psalm at the beginning of the month, attempt to memorize it together and hopefully by the end of the year we'll have 10 or 12 psalms that are deeply embedded in our minds and, by God’s grace, our souls.
We’re beginning in January with Psalm 1, and hope you’ll join us!
Grace and Peace to you,
Ope & Rebecca
Weekend Recommendations
On reading the Psalms repeatedly: “The Psalms have gifted me with a sense of prayerful disposition and being in the world…a leisurely, non-anxious quality” - David Taylor, author of Open and Unafraid: The Psalms as a Guide to Life (Renovare podcast)
“How Prayer Can Prepare Us For Death”: This interview with Douglas McKelvey, the author of the Every Moment Holy prayer books, is one that really stayed with me through 2021.
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