A weekly collection of inspiration and resources for the journey, gathered from websites, books, and pass-alongs that have been shared with us. From The Wisdom Years – Spirituality for the Last Third of Our Lives.
New on the Wisdom Years website: Our book study on The Gift of Years by Joan Chittister, with suggestions for doing the study and reflection questions for every chapter. If you want to offer the study in your church or group, let us know. We will be happy to get you started. Find it here.
“I think spiritual wisdom is not the measure of how much we know, but how much we have learned. Knowledge can become static, a museum of dogmas, a warehouse of opinions. We discover wisdom over and over again when what we think we know meets what we have never encountered before.”—Bishop Steven Charleston, Daily Facebook Page.
From Daily Something
by Joanna Seibert
Walking Away Out of Sorrow
By Fr. Ron Rolheiser
“What do we do when we’re depressed? What’s our temptation when a dream is shattered, when we feel betrayed, and when it seems like the trust we’ve shown someone was childish naivete? Generally the temptation is to gather what pride we have left and walk away, away from that person, away from that place of rejection, away from the humiliation, and away from our former dream, all the while saying to ourselves: ‘I’ll never trust in this way again! I’ve been burned, taken in, I now know the lesson!’ ”
Joining Our Wildernesses
By Liz Tichenor
From Daily Good
“We are living through a relentless constellation of loss, and I hear a near constant attempt to downplay just how hard it is. Asked how we’re doing, I utter such words too: ‘Of course it is impossible for me to work full-time and homeschool my children, but — but!’ — I race ahead in the same breath — ‘it is a wonder to be so involved in their learning.’ The gratitude is genuine. And it is so tempting to push my weary appreciation forward, eclipsing how untenable this situation really is.”
Grateful Voices
From A Network for Grateful Living
“In the summer of 2020, while all of us around the globe were isolated in some way from those we love, award-winning photographer and filmmaker Doug Menuez found a way for us to gather safely, outdoors, to listen closely to the stories of seven individuals for whom grateful living is a way of life.” From Claire’s story: “I think the real gift of a handicap — I don’t know about a disease — is that you, you come to a place where you know you can’t do something. And if you hold on there, something emerges. There is always another way to go. Always.”
To watch Claire’s video or read the transcript.
To watch more films in the Grateful Voices series.
Living in the Communion of Saints
From Richard Rohr’s Daily Meditations
At the conclusion of a week of daily meditations on the communion of saints, Rohr summarizes each day’s offerings then offers a practice of seven “homecomings.” Each of the seven is an opportunity to recognize the persons and circumstances that have been our “circle of care.”
See the practice of Seven Homecomings.
(Scroll down the page to see the practices.)
How to Love the World: A Poetry Practice Invitation
A four-week poetry writing experience
April 1-22
From A Network for Grateful Living
“As we emerge into a new way of being and living with open and curious hearts, we invite you during National Poetry Month to make writing a part of your own gratefulness practice, using weekly poems and prompts shared by James Crews to touch in on your own lived and everyday experiences. We invite you to meet each practice day with openness and creativity, allowing the poems to take you in your own directions and never feeling as though you need to follow the prompts exactly. Mark Nepo has called poetry ‘the unexpected utterance of the soul,’ and there can be no right or wrong when it comes to the poems, essays, stories, or journal entries we hope you might draw up from the depths of your being over this next month.”
Registration is free and will close on Wednesday, March 31, at 3:00 PM, EDT.
For more information and to register.
Holy Week Retreat: Stations of the Cross in Art History
Zoom Retreat facilitated by Judith Davis
From Monasteries of the Heart
Good Friday, April 2 from 2:00-4:30 p.m. ET
“The retreat will be led by long-time Monasteries of the Heart member, Benedictine Oblate, Episcopal priest, and art historian Judith Davis. The Zoom retreat will include a short history of the use of the Stations of the Cross and then focus on historical and contemporary portrayals of the Stations. Join us for this time of prayer, reflection, and learning.”
For more information and registration.
If you have something to add to Gathered Wisdom, send it to Marjorie George at
marjoriegeorge62@gmail.com
Gathered Wisdom is from The Wisdom Years, a ministry that invites older adults to deepening spirituality in the last third of their lives. If someone forwarded this to you, learn more about The Wisdom Years and subscribe to the site at
ww.wisdomyears.org.
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