A monthly curated collection of essays, poetry, and reflections for your spiritual journey from The Wisdom Years.
Embrace with tender affection the whole of humanity, especially the poorest, the weakest, the least important.
Pope Francis, “I Ask You to Pray for Me: Opening a Horizon of Hope”
Found in Well for the Journey
The Questions That Come at Dusk
Sometimes it takes darkness for us to see what the light wants to show us. “The light we gain in darkness is the awareness that, however bleak the place of darkness was for us, we did not die there,” says Joan Chittister. “We know now that life begins again on the other side of the darkness.”
Compassion is Never Small
The 90-year-old woman told the little boy she could not die yet because people kept asking her to make them a sandwich. “There are a lot of hungry people and many sandwiches to be made,” she said. There is nothing small about compassion, says Terry Hershey. It is the thread of life woven through each day.
Wingspan of the Soul
The prevailing cultural narrative wants us to believe that we aren’t adequate, aren’t prepared, aren’t qualified. But the words of Colossians 1:9-14 say otherwise. In Christ, says Br. Keith Nelson, we understand the wingspans of our souls. We know that we are “empowered, prepared, qualified, rescued, and transferred.”
What To Do When We’re Angry
Rebecca DeYoung talks with Nathan Foster of Renovare about handling our anger as Christians. We have to ask what is the source of our anger and is it aimed at the right person. The podcast is long – 38 minutes – but worth the investment of time.
From Renovare.
Book Review:
The Pilgrim Life: Finding God Along the Way
by Deborah Smith Douglas
From the introduction: “All our lives we are headed home. Home to a place we may not quite remember, but which we have always longed to find. Within our deepest selves beat pilgrim hearts.”
In this guidebook, a series of personal essays and deep study, Deborah takes us on a pilgrimage mapped out on the page. Her parts of the journey are: Setting Out, Getting Lost (and Being Found), Keeping Going, Night Roads, and Coming Home. Each of the 24 essays contain “counsel, stories, resources, and so many good laughs. (From the Forward by The Rev. Mary C. Earle.)
This is a book to read slowly and with time for reflection. Maybe even keep a journal close at hand.
Available from www.stmarksbookstore in the store and through our Bookshop portal on the website.
Gathered Wisdom is an offering of The Wisdom Years, a ministry devoted to the spiritual journey of the last third of our lives.
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