A weekly curated collection of essays, poetry, and reflections for your spiritual journey. From The Wisdom Years.
Every day I make an effort to go toward what I don’t understand.
This wandering leads to the accidental learning that continually shapes my life.
-Yo-Yo Ma, thisibelieve.org (essay)
Found in Well for the Journey
The Exquisite Risk
“Without knowing and feeling our connection to all life, the patterns of experience seem to make no sense,” says Mark Nepo. But when we open to the very fabric of existence, the ground of being, it is “a doorway, that lets us experience the extraordinary in the ordinary.”
From Awakin.
Our Inability to Cast Out Demons
There’s a lot more admiration than transformation inside religious and moral circles these days, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser. That is because to be effective in convincing people to change their lives, “We must do more than just point out the right road to others, we must be on that road ourselves. For this reason, the integrity of our private lives and private morals, down to the smallest detail, is the real power behind our words.”
From Ron Rolheiser.
Prophets without Robes or Staffs
Roger Lipsey reminds us that there are still prophets in the world and that we need to pay attention to them. He names and writes about four of them: Dag Hammarskjöld, Václav Havel, Nelson Mandela, and Greta Thunberg.
From Parabola online.
God’s Glorification: Our Praying Presence
“There are moments for each of us when others pour out their hearts to us, in great joy or great sorrow, or confide in us, or ask for our guidance,” says Brother Keith Nelson of the Society of St. John the Evangelist. “The offer to pray with or pray for such a companion in a moment like that is a small but missional act with the power to glorify another’s experience of life and to glorify God at work in us.”
From Society of St. John the Evangelist.
A Blessing for When you Need to Put One foot in Front of the Other.
Oh God,
the thought of trying for a new and improved me makes me tired.
I am barely getting anywhere,
so draw me closer to a different vision,
one that sees that I don’t need perfection—
Read the rest of the blessing.
From Kate Bowler.
Exploring Sophia/Seeking Wisdom
This week Joyce Rupp writes about the “ah-ha” moments when we suddenly see more deeply than we had before. She calls it a “Sophia moment.” We all have them, but do we pay attention to them?
Materials for our weekly study of wisdom literature are here.
If you want to join us for our Thursday afternoon conversation (4 p.m. Central time) send an mail to Marjorie George at marjoriegeorge62@gmail.com.
Gathered Wisdom is an offering of The Wisdom Years, a ministry devoted to the spiritual journey of the last third of our lives.
If this post was forwarded to you, sign up to receive Gathered Wisdom in your email by subscribing at wisdomyears.org.
To learn more visit our website.
The Wisdom Years 