Day 3

WOUNDEDNESS

FIVE WOUNDS

Oh my God

You have arms everywhere

thrown up

in squalid air

as we violate each other.

Five bullets

nail him to ground

just to ‘show the bastards’.

The fifth wound

to make sure he is dead

as dead can be.

Five bullets wound

the world,

and innocence

bleeds again.

Look at the broken body.

Feel the trembling fist on the trigger.

Each wound in him –

a wound in us.

Perpetrator and consoler,

I am powerless.

I want to live in relentless love.

Hope, forgive us.

Enable us to forgive ourselves

Grace Upon Grace: Savouring the Spiritual Exercises through the Art

growing in grace and hope

An Eight Day Retreat in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex & Ambiguous (VUCA) World

Music for Disposition-setting and silencing

song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICnct8THNag

DAY 3: Woundedness

GRACE:

My Lord Jesus, I beg for the grace of acceptance and serenity so that I can embrace fully the painful reality of my wounds in my life and to see how my wounds are also your wounds.

POINTS:

1. Wounds are important sources of the stories of our lives.

2. Wounds can heal and when they do, they provide us with a different perspective on life.

3. When we expose our woundedness to others, it invites them into the story of our wounds.

Scarred People are Beautiful

August 8, 2015nicatharsis

I’d like to share this beautiful poem that my classmate have read in our Psychology class when I was in first year college. To those who are under the distress of life, remember that we’re like a pencil, we need to experience some painful sharpening from time to time in order for us to be better, to be stronger and to be wiser.

Man speaks:

I’ve been hurt, Lord.

I have trusted and been betrayed at times.

I have loved and received nothing in return.

I have tried hard to care and failed often.

I have shared my secrets and, heard them whispered to others.

I have been warm and received a cold shoulder.

I have been through it, Lord.

I’ve fallen on my face.

I’ve banged my shins.

I’ve been bruised.

Look, Lord, I’m all covered with scars!

The Lord Speaks:

Maybe you haven’t understood enough.

Maybe you haven’t learned that human life is like that.

All saints are scarred.

Young love isn’t the highest form of human love.

The greatest love comes from scarred people.

I know that many people stop loving so they won’t be hurt again.

But those people who do start over again, who continue in spite of all,

who leave themselves open to the possibility of being hurt again —

These people are able to love again in a deeper way, a more understanding way, a richer way.

Man’s response:

I think I know what you mean, Lord.

I’ve met people like that and knowing them gives me courage.

The great people are those who continue to love with their scars.

I like scarred people, Lord.

They are beautiful.

https://nicatharsis.wordpress.com/2015/08/08/scarred-people-are-beautiful/

SCRIPTURE

1. Ephesians 2: 1-22. When we were dead, God brought us to life in God’s Son. . . so you are no longer aliens . . . you are part of God’s household.

2. Corinthians 5: 17. If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

3. Galatians 4: 7. So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.