Category: gathered wisdom

Gathered Wisdom, May 16, 2023

Marjorie George

A weekly curated collection of essays, poetry, and reflections for your spiritual journey.  From The Wisdom Years.

In prayer today, we might ask God to reveal to us the opportunities that are before us at this moment. Perhaps there is a window of opportunity in which we can express our love and gratitude to someone. Perhaps the soil is just right for planting some new seeds. Do not delay. Do not lose this opportunity. Take full advantage of this moment in your life’s history.

Br. David Vryhof, SSJE

A Lesson in Aging

Aging is a gift, even if unwanted, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser.  Aging, he says, “forces us, mostly against our will, to listen to our soul more deeply and more honestly so as to draw from its deeper wells and begin to make peace with its complexity, its shadow, and its deepest proclivities.” 

Read the reflection.

rom the blog of Ron Rolheiser.

An Open Empty Space

Richard Foster, author of Celebration of Discipline, insists that regularly-scheduled private retreats are essential for spiritual growth. In this, we follow our leader, Jesus, who often went away to a lonely place for prayer and refreshment.

Read the reflection.

From Renovare.

Making It Real

We are limited, fallible, frail creatures, says Br. Lain Wilson of the Society of St. John the Evangelist. So when Jesus says to us, “Do not let your hearts be troubled” (Jn 14:1). Do we believe him? God is always speaking to us—in word and image, relationship and experience, memory and imagination. God is always speaking to us, and it’s up to us to learn how to listen. 

Read the reflection.

From SSJE.

See The Universe In A Sunflower

Just because we can’t see something right now doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It’s just a matter of time and latent conditions says Thich Nhat Hanh.

Read the reflection.

From Awakin.

Trusting God

Even when we feel out of control, the psalmist teaches us to recall God’s past faithfulness and look toward to the future with trust.

Find the materials for week 5 of The Wisdom Years psalms study, “God’s People Speak to God.”

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.

Gathered Wisdom, May 9, 2023

Marjorie George

A weekly curated collection of essays, poetry, and reflections for your spiritual journey.  From The Wisdom Years.

There is a journey you must take. It is a journey without a destination. There is no map. Your soul will lead you. 

-Meister Eckhart, Meister Eckhart’s Book of the Heart by Jon Sweeny and Mark Burrows

From Well for the Journey

Peace I leave with You

Holy Week and the events of Easter gave us a definite timeline and focus for our spiritual journey. But now the timeline seems a little harder to track. What keeps us coming back?

Read the reflection:

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

Fly Loose

If the airplane pilot grips the yoke too tightly during turbulence, it actually makes the plane less steady. When the going gets tough, we need to remember to fly loose.

Read the reflection:

From Center for Action and Contemplation

Thirsty for Wonder

If you live as a contemplative person, you are likely to see God in unexpected moments. “The more you intentionally turn inward, the more available the sacred becomes,” says Mirabai Starr.”

Read the reflection. 

From Daily Good.

End Of the World

If the world as we know it is ending, it is up to us now to give it a good send off –  “To let it hand on its gifts and teach the lessons that may only become apparent as the end approaches,” says Douglad Hine.

Read the reflection.

From Awakin.

A Love So Wide and Deep

As we engage the psalms this week, we learn a new word: hesed. The word tries to capture what is unexplainable – God’s love. In week 4 of “God’s People Speak to God,” we look at the psalms of penitence and apply hesed.

Find the material for our psalms study here.

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.

Gathered Wisdom, May 2, 2023

Marjorie George

A weekly curated collection of essays, poetry, and reflections for your spiritual journey.  From The Wisdom Years.

Some beautiful paths can’t be discovered without getting lost.

-Erol Ozan, Talus
Found at Well for the Journey

In the Shelter of Each Other

What do Mr. Rogers and Willie Nelson have in common? They are what Terry Hershey calls church.

Read the reflection.

From Terry Hershey Sabbath Moment

Embracing Change

Esther de Waal finds that the Christian journey – like the journey of the Hebrews across the desert – is full of uncertainties. Christ, she says,  “challenges people to leave their nets, or to leave a nice safe booth, and follow him.”

Read the reflection

From the Center for Action and Contemplation.

Loss Gave Life to My Empathy

He was expecting a day full of fun with his family, then unexpected death abruptly overcame their plans. He now knows that episode shaped his life and his career.

Read the story.

From Grateful Living.

The Journey of Healing and Faith

“We may feel tempted to hide beneath our scars thinking they are still wounds,” says Br. Jack Crowley from the Society of St. John the Evangelist. Or we can look at the scars as reminders that we have been healed. “We can smile with the wrinkles around our eyes.”

Read the sermon.

From Society of St.John the Evangelist.

The History of the Journey

The Israelites remembered their salvation journey in the history psalms. These they told to their children as they recalled and celebrated how God formed them as a people.  We too can tell the stories of our journey.

Find the material for week 3, the storytelling psalms, of our “God’s People Speak to God” study here.

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.

Gathered Wisdom April 25

Marjorie George

A weekly curated collection of essays, poetry, and reflections for your spiritual journey.  From The Wisdom Years.

Be outrageous in forgiving. Be dramatic in reconciling. Mistakes? Back up and make them as right as you can, then move on.

New Mercies, Measured Out with Coffee Spoons
(with apologies to T.S. Eliot)

The writer of Lamentations was hopeful because “he remembers the unchanging love of God. But he also hopes because he knows that God’s mercies are new every morning. This is the twofold nature of hope: it is rooted in God’s character and work, and it renews with the sunrise.”

Read the reflection from Molly Harnish.

From Kolbe Times.

Lessons For The Great Fifty Days Of Easter

Drawing from Bishop Steven Charleston’s Easter reflection, Joanna Seibert reminds us of the hope Easter brings and urges us to apply ourselves to the healing of society.

Read the reflection.

From Joanna Seibert.

Our Utterly Unique Experience of God

The apostle Thomas gets a bad rap for being a doubter. But Brother Curtis Almquist sees it as Thomas needing to experience it for himself. We all have our own experiences of God, says Br. Almquist. “There is also a chamber in God, into which none other may enter excerpt you, the peculiarly unique person you are,” he says.

Read or listen to the sermon.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

Instructions For Living An Easter Life

The Rev. Mike Marsh gleans three instructions for living Easter from the Gospel of Luke. Pay attention. Be astonished.  Tell about it.

Read the sermon.

Read more at Interrupting the Silence.

God’s People Speak to God

What hill are you climbing just now? The ancient Hebrews traveled uphill to the sacred city of Jerusalem in their quest for God. But they sang as they went. We hear their voices in the “psalms of ascent.”

Join us for our six-week study of the psalms. We gather by Zoom on Thursdays at 4 p.m. (Central time). Or use the study materials on your own.

Find it at
https://wisdomyears.org/gods-people-speak-to-god-introduction/

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.

Gathered Wisdom, April 18, 2023

Marjorie George

A weekly curated collection of essays, poetry, and reflections for your spiritual journey.  From The Wisdom Years.

Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field. I’ll meet you there.
When the soul lies down in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.
Ideas, language, even the phrase “each other”
doesn’t make any sense.

Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi – 13th century Persian poet     

The Invitation of Grace

We each have a song, says writer Terry Hershey. “It is the song that reminds us we are beautiful, when we feel ugly. It is the song that tells us we are whole, when we feel broken.”

Read the reflection.

From Terry Hershey Sabbath Moment

Resurrection Words

The Jesus story wasn’t supposed to turn out this way. He was supposed to conquer all the enemies of the Jews. Instead he died a horrible, cruel death. But then something strange happened – the resurrection!

Read the sermon from Br. James Koester.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

Mighty in Contradiction: Love Powerfully

The opposite of love is not hate, says Patty De Llosa. It is power. Power seeks dominion, she says. love is about caring, taking in the message, finding what’s needed, seeing what wishes to appear and helping it to flower. Unfortunately, both of them operate in us.

Read the short reflection.

From Awakin.

Watchful for Resurrections

Death is inevitable, but so is resurrection. We remember that as our world emerges from winter into new life. Our own little resurrections come every time we choose to die to fear and egocentricity.

Read the reflection.

From the Center for Action and Contemplation.

God’s People Speak to God – a study of the psalms

The psalms of creation reveal God’s majesty and power and remind us that our God is a God of abundance, not scarcity. And yet, God has made man a little lower than the angels (Psalm 8).

Our study of the psalms starts this week. Engage it on your own, with your small group, or join us on Zoom on Thursdays from 4 to 5:15 pm (Central time). If you are interested in joining the Zoom group, send an email to Marjorie George at marjoriegeorge62@gmail.com.

The six-week study will be posted on the Wisdom Years website at
https://wisdomyears.org/gods-people-speak-to-god-introduction/

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.

Gathered Wisdom, April 4, 2023

Marjorie George

A weekly curated collection of essays, poetry, and reflections for your spiritual journey.  From The Wisdom Years.

This issue of Gathered Wisdom is devoted to Holy Week – for Christians the holiest week of the year culminating in the glorious Day of Resurrection, Easter.

GW will take an Easter break next week and return on April 18.

Spring teaches me to look more carefully for the green stems of possibility: for the intuitive hunch that may turn into a larger insight, for the glance or touch that may thaw a frozen relationship, for the stranger’s act of kindness that makes the world seem hospitable again.

-Parker Palmer, There is a Season

Found in Well for the Journey

Holy Week: The Big Event

“Unless we walk through the darkness of Holy Week and Good Friday, unless we recognize the horror of sin and its consequence of Jesus dying on the cross, unless we experience the despair the disciples felt on Holy Saturday, we can’t fully understand the light and hope of Sunday morning.” – Kathleen Stephens

Read the reflection.

From The Upper Room.

The Sign of Jonah

Richard Rohr recalls Jesus saying the only sign he would give is the “sign of Jonah” (Matt 16:4) What does that mean for Holy Week?

Watch the video (12 min).

From the Center for Action and Contemplation.

Lent for Everyone

N. T. Wright wonders in this video if Jesus experienced doubt about who he was when the crowd taunted , “If you are the son of God . . . ”

Watch the short video (2 min).

From the Society for Promoting Cristian Knowledge (SPCK).

Prayers, Poems, and Meditations

The days of Holy Week are “pregnant with the immanence of God,” says The Rev. Dr. Paul Hooker of Austin Presbyterian Seminary. In this online booklet, prayers, poems, and meditations draw us in to connect with God’s closeness in Holy Week.

Read the online booklet.

From Austin Presbyterian Seminary.

Easter Light

The earth was dark twice, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser. Once at the original creation and again on Good Friday afternoon. In the second, “God created the most staggering light of all – the resurrection.”

Read the reflection.

From the blog of Ron Rolheiser.

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.

Gathered Wisdom and The Wisdom Years ministry wish you a blessed Holy Week and joyous Easter.

Gathered Wisdom, Mar 28, 2023

Marjorie George

A weekly curated collection of essays, poetry, and reflections for your spiritual journey.  From The Wisdom Years.

What if becoming who and what we truly are happens not through striving and trying but by recognizing and receiving the people and places and practices that offer us the warmth of encouragement when we need to unfold.

-Oriah Mountain Dreamer, The Dance

From Well for the Journey

Community

Being in community has much to teach us, says Joanna Seibert. In community we learn, among other things, how our gifts are needed in the world – and that we don’t have all the gifts, and that’s OK.

Read the reflection.

From Joanna Seibert.

We Learn by Doing It Wrong

We tend to think that we learn by getting good at something. But Richard Rohr teaches that we learn best by our mistakes. “The only way we stay on the path with any authenticity is to constantly experience our incapacity to do it, our failure at doing it,” says Rohr.

Read the reflection

From the Center for Action and Contemplation

There are angels

To access our lightness, sometimes we have to see through the darkness. But always there are angels along the way. Enjoy this short video from Karma Tube,  an all-volunteer organization dedicated to contributing to the world in a meaningful way.

Watch the video.

More about Karma Tube.

Ask, Search, Knock

“Ask and it will be given to you,” said Jesus. (Matt 7:7).  But what if it’s not? What if I search and find nothing? Asking and searching takes an initiative and a willingness to expose our hearts, says Br Keith Nelson of the Society of John the Evangelist. Do we trust God’s generosity enough to name our need?

Read or listen to the sermon.

From SSJE

Faith through Mysticism

Being born into a Christian family and worshipping within a Christian church can give us a relationship to a religion, to an ideology, to a truth, and to a community of worship, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser.  But that is not the same as an actual faith in God .

Read the reflection.

From Ron Rolheiser’s blog.

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.

Gathered Wisdom, Mar 21, 2023

Marjorie George

A weekly curated collection of essays, poetry, and reflections for your spiritual journey.  From The Wisdom Years.

When we awaken and are able to recall who we are and to whom we belong, when we stand up and dust ourselves off and begin the journey home, God comes running to meet us.

Br. David Vryhof, SSJE
Read More

The Way of Sabbath

Our five-week study of Sabbath wraps up this week. Abraham Heschel’s book The Sabbath has taught us a new way to celebrate the seventh day of the week. Rather than seeing the fourth commandment as a series of  do’s and don’t’s, we realize that God’s gift to us of Sabbath is an invitation to rest in the nearer presence of God as we will in eternity.

Find all the material on The Way of Sabbath at the Wisdom Years website.

The Seven Types of Rest Everyone Needs

Sleep and rest are not the same thing, says Dr. Saundra Dalton-Smith, a physician and sleep researcher. She identifies seven types of rest we all need – including physical, emotional, and spiritual.

Read the excerpt from Dr. Dalton-Smith’s TED Talk.

Found in Daily Good.

Enter Spring,
Parker Palmer Muses on the Season

Before spring becomes beautiful, it is plug ugly, nothing but mud and muck, says writer and teacher Parker Palmer. But in that mess are the conditions for rebirth. We often find that true in our own lives – what looks like it is totally dead and decaying actually holds the material from which new life comes.

Read the reflection.

Found at Fetzer Institute.

The Humility to Be Taught

Richard Rohr finds that Paul’s young disciple, Timothy, has a ”teachable spirit.” Timothy, says Rohr, possesses an “enduring sense of openness and humility that does not close down by reason of failure, facts, or cynical old age.” 

Read the reflection.

From the Center for Action and Contemplation.

A Turtle’s Silver Bead Of Quietude

Turtles survive winter by digging into the mud at the bottom of the pond. There they actually stop breathing. They live believing, – even if they can’t name it – that the world will one day warm again and welcome them into its sunlight.

Read the reflection.

From Awakin.

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.

Gathered Wisdom, March 14, 2023

Marjorie George

A weekly curated collection of essays, poetry, and reflections for your spiritual journey.  From The Wisdom Years.

Within yourself is a stillness and a sanctuary to which you can retreat at any time and be yourself.

-Herman Hesse, Siddhartha

From Well for the Journey

The Way of Sabbath

We are accustomed to thinking that on the seventh day of creation, God did nothing, that God rested. But Abraham Heschel sees it another way in his book The Sabbath. On the seventh day, says Heschel, God created Sabbath and declared that Israel would be her mate, as a bride. The seventh day is not simply an abstract idea; it is a living presence and is to be treated as a welcome guest.

Materials for week 4 of the Wisdom Years Lenten study on the Sabbath are now posted. Find it all here.

Everyday Pilgrims

“Pilgrimage need not take place in an exotic, faraway locale,” says Richard Rohr. Pilgrimage can take place anywhere we experience God. One simply needs to have a purpose and place in mind where one can go in order to experience the Holy.

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

Living with Less Fear

Too many people live with a fear of God, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser. “Everything inside of our Christian faith invites us to move towards God in intimacy rather than in fear,” he says. Rolheiser offers ten principles that invite us to live in less fear of the Almighty.

Read the reflection.

From the blog of Ron Rolheiser.

The Grand Predicament

Most of us live with the idea that we are not enough, not sufficient, that we don’t belong. So we are endlessly trying to make ourselves better. Ironically, knowing that we are enough comes when we finally surrender to a moment of not knowing.

Read the reflection.

From Awakin.

Instructions on Not Giving Up

A poem

More than the fuchsia funnels breaking out
of the crabapple tree, more than the neighbor’s
almost obscene display of cherry limbs shoving
their cotton candy-colored blossoms to the slate
sky of Spring rains, it’s the greening of the trees
that really gets to me.

Read the rest of the poem.

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.

Gathered Wisdom, Mar 7, 2023

Marjorie George

A weekly curated collection of essays, poetry, and reflections for your spiritual journey.  From The Wisdom Years.

It may be that there is a laundry list you have prayerfully assembled to tackle this Lent. You are not going to get to everything. Pick one or two things and then stick with those. Hold these intentions as a focus of your prayer with Jesus and ask him to heal and transfigure them. In this way we can turn a season of discipline into a lifetime of discipleship.

Br. Jim Woodrum, SSJE
Read More

Awake and Connected to Our Divine Parent

Have you ever noticed that when you take your children to a playground they want to play with their friends but every once in a while glance at you to make sure you are still there? It is a form of “heathy attachment,” and is mindful of our relationship with God.

Read the essay.

From Renovare.

Bringing Forth New Life

Amma Syncletica, one of the Desert Mothers from the third and fourth centuries, advises the spiritual seeker to stay in one place. Just as eggs in a bird nest will not hatch if the mother abandons the nest, so the monk or the nun grows cold and their faith dies when they go from one place to another, says Amma. What is the lesson here for us?

Read the reflection from the Rev. Mary C. Earle on Richard Rohr’s “Daily Meditations.”

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

Peace to Those Who Enjoy God’s Favor

Have you ever stood by the window watching for someone to get home – a child coming from school? A teenager out with your car for the very first time on a Saturday night? A spouse driving home from work during a bad storm? That is how God loves us, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser.

Read the essay.

More about Ron Rolheieser.

Age-Tempered Living: Choosing your Changes

“Getting older changes us and we can cooperate with it, or fight it, and it’s usually some kind of combination of the two,” says writer John Schuster. His method of choice in aging is “tempering” – doing more of what gives him joy and less of what doesn’t.

Read the reflection.

From Evocateur by John Schuster.

Three Lessons of Revolutionary Love in a Time of Rage

In a TED talk, Valerie Kaur reminds us that revolutionary love is what we need most right now. She compares it to being willing to go through labor in the name of love. As a Sikh, she speaks as an American who has been labeled as dangerous and “the other.”

Watch the powerful video. ( 22 min)

From Karma Tube.

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.