Mtr Taylor Devine

Dear Friend,

On most Fridays during the school year I am with the Beloved in the Desert Community Members for Morning Prayer, Chapter Meeting, Formation, and Eucharist. Over the past 2 1/2 years working with young adults, particularly throughout the pandemic, I have found the Psalms in particular to speak to them, to me, and sometimes to the challenges of this time with an astute clarity. Sometimes I think “oh they are going to love this one,” or “I wonder how they’ll hear this one”. It is a gift to have a pattern of life with people. In Church communities the places where we meet that are a part of our personal and corporate Rules of Life have the capacity to teach us about ourselves, one another, and to deepen our relationship with God through these patterns.

I think that the Psalms meet people in intensive formation and life transitions in a unique way. The ancient communities that gathered these prayers are not so different from ours, seeking God, feeling judgment, trying again, still being the same people who are called to love and serve the God of the universe with our feeble means - but the wonderful thing about the Psalms is that the point is always about God and not us. One of the great learnings in many periods of spiritual growth is the important “it’s not about me”. Sure, some things are about me, but the center of the universe is not me.

Our Psalms today seem to walk that line - praying to a God who is completely other and yet keenly knows God’s people in a way that allows them to know and trust and serve God:

Though I am poor and afflicted, *
the Lord will have regard for me.
You are my helper and my deliverer; *
do not tarry, O my God.

The Evelyn Underhill quote that says “The interesting thing about religion is God” has been rattling around in my head these days as we prepare for Christmas, as we do the waiting and repenting and returning work of Advent. The interesting thing about religion is God - the interesting thing about all we encounter in this faith journey is God, and yet God is interested in us, interested enough to be incarnate, to know life like ours, to save and redeem God’s people by his own life.

In Christ,
Mtr Taylor