Reflection:
Broken and Given
In this reflection we explore the story of the feeding of the five thousand, and how this may apply in our own lives, especially looking at what it means to be broken and given.
Opening music:
Listen to the following as an opening prayer.
Lyrics:
Be still and know that I am God
Be still and know that I am
Be still and know that I
Be still and know that
Be still and know
Be still and
Be still
Be
Be still and know that I am love…
Be still and know that I am peace…
Sacred Reading:
Read the following reading through twice or three times, with an attitude of open receptivity. Allow a few minutes of silence after the reading. Listen for any words that call out to you, or that stir in your heart in some way:
Reading: Luke 9:12-17
Late in the afternoon the disciples came to him and said, “Send the crowd away so they can go to the surrounding villages and countryside and find food and lodging, because we are in a remote place here.” He replied, “You give them something to eat.” They answered, “We have only five loaves of bread and two fish—unless we go and buy food for all this crowd.” (About five thousand were there.) But he said to his disciples, “Have them sit down in groups of about fifty each.” The disciples did so, and everyone sat down. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke them. Then he gave them to the disciples to distribute to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.
Quiet prayer
I invite you into a time of quiet prayer, using this 10 minute timer.
End the time of quiet prayer by listening to the following song:
Lyrics:
Christ has no body now but yours
No hands, no feet on earth, but yours
Yours are the eyes through which He looks
Compassion on this world
Yours are the feet with which He walks
To do good
Yours are the hands
With which He blesses all the world
Yours are the hands
Yours are the feet
Yours are the eyes
You are His body
Christ has no body now but yours
No hands, no feet on earth, but yours
Yours are the eyes through which He looks
Compassion on this world
Christ has no body now on earth
But yours
For Further Reflection:
Below are quotes from the talk for you to take this theme further.
Cynthia Bourgeault:
"This is simply part of the biochemistry of egoic thinking. . . . When I experience myself as separate from everyone else, it creates an automatic mentality of scarcity and . . . competing for limited resources." …
"We become literally unable to perceive the abundance that in fact surrounds us, or to participate in the dance of giving-is-receiving,"
Henri Nouwen:
"The first response, then, to our brokenness is to face it squarely and befriend it... Yes, we have to find the courage to embrace our own brokenness, to make our most feared enemy into a friend and to claim it as an intimate companion."
James Finlay:
“In the moment when a person risks sharing what hurts the most in the presence of someone who will not invade them or abandon them, they unexpectedly come upon within themselves the pearl of greatest price. That is, they experience the preciousness of themselves in their fragility. This is a very profound experience – that the very brokenness that one tends to be ashamed of, that one is trying to get rid of, when we lay it bare in the presence of someone who will not invade us or abandon us, we unexpectedly come upon the already precious nature of ourselves in our brokenness.”
Henri Nouwen:
"I realise that there is a mysterious link between our brokenness and our ability to give to each other. ... Our brokenness opens us to a deeper way of sharing our lives and offering each other hope. Just as bread needs to be broken in order to be given, so, too, do our lives."
Rainer Maria Rilke:
I yearn to be held in the great hands of your heart.
Oh let them take me now.
Into your hands I place these fragments, my life,
and you, my God, spend them however you want.
Ending Prayer:
Holy One beyond all names
Eternal Wellspring
May love and generosity rise again in us today
With food for every table
Shelter for every family
And reverence for every life.
Look with tender mercy on our brokenness,
And free us from all falseness and selfishness,
That the light of our souls may shine
And the gift of our spirits be given
For Earth and all its people
This day, and forever. Amen
(Adapted from John Philip Newell)
Ending music:
Lyrics:
Remove from us these hearts of stone,
And give to us a heart of flesh;
Remove from us these hearts of stone,
And give to us a heart of flesh.
Pour out, pour out, pour out,
Pour it all out.
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Sharon's book that was previously called "Contemplative Living" has been republished by AnamChara Books under the title "Deeper: Finding the Depth Dimension Beneath the Surface of Life". The Kindle version is available from Amazon, and the hard copy version can be ordered from myself (email sharongruss@gmail.com), or from loot.co.za or Takealot, or from your local bookshop through Ingram Distribution.