Psalm 51:10 (NRSVUE)  

Create in me a clean heart, O God,  

and put a new and right spirit within me.

God renews me from the inside out.

Howard Thurman  

“There is in every person  

a quiet center,  

a place of renewal  

where God whispers life again.  

Return to that center often—  

for it is from the depths  

that true transformation rises.”

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Isaiah 43:1 (NRSVUE)  

But now thus says the Lord…  

“I have called you by name,  

you are mine.”

I am the one God loves.

Brennan Manning  

“Define yourself radically  

as one beloved by God.  

This is the true self  

every other voice tries to silence.  

Your identity is not rooted  

in what you achieve,  

but in the One  

who calls you beloved—  

and never stops saying it.”

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1 Corinthians 6:19 (NRSVUE)  

Do you not know that your body is a temple  

of the Holy Spirit within you,  

which you have from God…?

God dwells in this body.

Hildegard of Bingen  

“Your body is a sacred vessel,  

alive with the breath of God.  

Do not despise the earth you are made of—  

for it is here  

that the Holy One chooses to dwell.  

The soul is not trapped in the body;  

it sings through it.”  

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Psalm 27:8 (NRSVUE)  

You have said, “Seek my face.”  

My heart says to you,  

“Your face, Lord, do I seek.”

My desire draws me toward God.

John of the Cross  

“In the desire of the heart  

God is already present.  

For longing is the humble doorway  

through which Love enters—  

not to take us away from ourselves,  

but to lead us deeper within  

to where God has always dwelled.”

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1 Kings 19:12 (NRSVUE)  

…and after the earthquake a fire,  

but the Lord was not in the fire;  

and after the fire  

a sound of sheer silence.

God meets me in the quiet.

Kathleen Norris  

“Silence is not the absence of God—  

it is the presence of God unforced.  

It is here we learn to listen,  

to shed our illusions,  

to discover the One  

who has been with us all along  

in the quiet places we seldom enter.” 

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2 Corinthians 4:6 (NRSVUE)  

For it is the God who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,”  

who has shone in our hearts  

to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God  

in the face of Jesus Christ.

Love shines through everything.

Julian of Norwich  

“The love of God creates in us  

such a oneness  

that when it is truly seen,  

no created thing can separate us from Him.  

For love was His meaning from the beginning,  

and love shall be His meaning to the end.  

So it was,  

so it is,  

so it ever shall be.”  

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1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NRSVUE)  

Give thanks in all circumstances,  

for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

Gratitude opens my heart to God.

Mary Oliver  

“It is a serious thing  

just to be alive  

on this fresh morning  

in this broken world.  

I give thanks for the mystery of it—  

for the grass underfoot,  

for the air moving through my lungs,  

for the chance  

to love what is before me.”  

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Colossians 1:17 (NRSVUE)  

He himself is before all things,  

and in him all things hold together.

All things are held together in Christ.

Teilhard de Chardin  

“By virtue of creation,  

and still more of the Incarnation,  

nothing here below is profane for those who know how to see.  

The divine spark is everywhere,  

hidden in matter as fire is hidden in stone.  

To live is to set that fire free—  

to awaken to the communion of all things.”

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Matthew 5:9 (NRSVUE)  

Blessed are the peacemakers,  

for they will be called children of God.

I carry peace wherever I go.

John Lewis  

“Peace is not simply the absence of war or tension—  

it is the presence of justice,  

the manifestation of compassion,  

the active pursuit of reconciliation.  

True peace does not come by standing still—  

it comes when love steps forward.”

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John 1:4–5 (NRSVUE)  

In him was life,  

and the life was the light of all people.  

The light shines in the darkness,  

and the darkness did not overcome it.

The light within me is the life of God.

Rabindranath Tagore  

“The same stream of life that runs through my veins night and day  

runs through the world and dances in rhythmic measures.  

It is the same life that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth  

in numberless blades of grass  

and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.  

And so, whenever my heart grows dim,  

I remember:  

the light within me is the life of God.”

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