Category: gathered wisdom

Exploring Sophia; Seeking Wisdom starts May 12

They call her name Sophia – the feminine characteristic of God known as wisdom. How to find wisdom, how to incorporate it into our lives is the subject of our next online study, beginning May 12. We will look at the biblical wisdom literature and read The Star in my Heart by Joyce Rupp, then gather for discussion, lectio divina, and other practices weekly by Zoom – Thursdays, 4 pm. (Central time) by Zoom. 

For the details, click here.

A Child of the Light

Writing in Daily Something from Joanna Seibert, guest author Chris Schaefer reflects on what we learn in the darkness as well as in the light. What happens when we venture out of the shade into the light and dare to acknowledge that we are not perfect and we make mistakes.

Read the reflection.

Found in Joanna Seibert. 

Two Types of Heartbreak

“What can we do with our pain? How might we hold it and work with it? How do we turn the power of suffering toward new life?” asks Parker Palmer. “The way we answer those questions is critical because violence is what happens when we don’t know what else to do with our suffering.” Will we have supple hearts that allow suffering to lead us to new life, or brittle hearts that shatter us and all around us?

Read the reflection.

From Awakin.

The Sacramental Principle

God’s presence can be seen in the ordinary and the material, says Richard Rohr. We do not have to wait for supernatural apparitions. This “sacramental theology” proclaims that things that are visible and tactile open the doorway to the invisible. 

Read the reflection. 

From the Center for Action and Contemplation.

What’s The Story Of Your Easter?

Are you living Easter or just celebrating the one day? If the resurrection of Jesus does not make a difference in our lives, if we keep on doing the same old thing in the same old way, we are not living Easter.

Read the sermon from the Rev. Dr. Mike Marsh.

From Interrupting the Silence.

Resurrection Faith 

When the women went to the tomb on Easter morning and found it empty, they ran to tell the disciples.  But the men did not believe them; they thought it was nonsense.  That happens a lot in the post resurrection stories: “No one believes in the good news of Jesus’ resurrection when they first hear it,” says Brother David Vryhof of the Society of St. John the Evangelist. It’s not surprising, he adds. 

Read the rest of the essay.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

Huge Stones and Locked Doors

Two resurrection images stand out in Fr. Ron Rolheiser’s mind: locked doors and the stone being rolled away. “These images remind us of what often separates us from the grace of the resurrection,” says Rolheiser. “Sometimes for that grace to find us, someone must ‘roll away the stone’ that entombs us and sometimes the resurrection must come to us ‘through locked doors,’” he says.

Read the essay.

From Fr. Ron Rolheiser.

The News of the Heart: Balance in Hard Times

There is news of the world, which can be overwhelmingly distressing lately, and there is news of the heart – that the world is still filled with extraordinary people of good heart and spirit.  We can shift the news we encounter and the news we generate by simply observing and practicing small acts of kindness.

Read the essay.

Found in Kolbe Times.

A Promise for All Creation

Writing on Earth Day (April 22) Richard Rohr declares that in the resurrection of Jesus, God redeems the whole of creation. We will find the risen Christ everywhere we look – in a budding dogwood tree, in our neighbors, in the shining sun and  baby plants pushing through the dirt for another season. We are an Easter people, and we are called to live in the hope of new life everywhere.

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front

As National Poetry Month ends, we offer a poem by Wendell Berry. Thanks to one of our readers for sending it.

Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
vacation with pay. Want more
of everything ready-made. Be afraid
to know your neighbors and to die.
And you will have a window in your head.

Read the rest of the poem.

Found on Bookpeople.

God’s Nature – Exuberance or the Cross?

Are you given to laughter or irritation when something unexpected happens? And what does God have to do with it? Fr. Ron Rolheiser suggests that God’s nature is both exuberance and suffering, and that Jesus reveals this in his life and in his death. 

Read the essay.

From the blog of Ron Rolheiser.

Seven Lessons Learned from Leaves

Who would think that observing the simple leaf, one can learn some life lessons? But photographer Paul Cotter found that leaves suffer from stress, just as we do. The difference between the leaves he examined in 2019 and the ones he looked at in 2020 attested to it.

Read the reflection.

Found on Daily Good.

A Mother Hen God

Nothing actually keeps danger from being dangerous, says Nadia Bolz-Weber. Of course we are sometimes afraid. Jesus called Herod a fox, then said he wanted to gather Jerusalem to him as a mother hen gathers her chicks. But a mother hen cannot save her babies from a determined fox. What she can do is love them.

Read the reflection.

From the Center for Action and Contemplation.

Poems for Soft Hearts in Hard Times

Often, we turn to poetry to express our feelings when we don’t have the words. This collection of poetry – from Wendell Berry, Mark Nepo, and Naomi Shihab Nye, among others – draws us in to what our hearts are unable to say.

Peruse the collection.

From A network for Grateful Living.

Turn Aside and Behold a Great Sight

Moses had to “turn aside” from his normal plans to see the great thing that God had prepared for him to do. “The act of turning aside from the paths we think we know is a theme that runs right through every invitation of the spiritual life, and Lent is a perfect season in which to practice this subtle but life-changing posture,” says Brother Sean Glenn.

Read or listen to the sermon. 

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

The Price of Peace

Brother David Steindl-Rast offers four suggestions for how we as a people can return to being a community of peace. The price for peace will broken hearts, he says, but they will be broken open not broken down, open to embrace everyone.

Read the essay.

From A Network for Grateful Living.

Seeing Beauty in Ourselves and Others

An older woman who is slipping into dementia cannot see her own beauty until friends introduce the idea of kintsugi – a method of repairing broken pots with gold leaf.

Read the reflection.

From Kolbe Times.

The Keys to Aging Well

A reporter with PBS News Hour talks with neuroscientist and professor Daniel Levitin about the aging process and why some people age better than others. Aging is not inevitably a time of decline and loss; it can be a period of renewed energy and engagement. 

Watch the interview or read the transcript.

Found in Daily Good.

On Hope

Krista Tippett of On Being reflects on hope – not as idealism or optimism but as a choice to live in the world as it is, not as we wish it were. “You could make a persuasive case that humanity is hurtling backward,” says Tippett, “But hope calls me to attend, too, to the world that wants to be born.”

Read the article.

Found in Daily Good.

Spring

By Mary Oliver

And here is the serpent again,
Dragging himself out from his nest of darkness,
His cave under the black rocks,
His winter death.

Read the rest of the poem.

Spiritual Listening

The way we listen to another is much more important than the words we use. “To listen another’s soul into a condition of disclosure and discovery may be almost the greatest service one human being ever performs for another,” says Quaker writer Douglas Steere. Spiritual listening is the art of becoming a listening presence, a way of being in which stillness and attentiveness provide the space for people to speak authentically and know they are being heard. 

Read the reflection.

From Daily Good.

The Cross as Revealing the Passion

When we are the one who takes cares of everyone else, it is hard to move from that role to being the one who is taken care of, as happens as we age or become ill.  However, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser, we have an opportunity in those times to give as much to others in our passivities as in our activities. It is a time when we give our love and ourselves in a very deep way.

Read the reflection.

More about Ron Rolheiser.

Between Gift And Privilege

In various shamanic traditions, the word medicine is used to describe the unique combination of qualities that a particular living thing embodies.  A tree’s “medicine” might include the way it offers shade and shelter. In the same way, humans have medicine to offer. “Each one of us harbors a unique combination of inner gifts, waiting to be discovered, drawn out, and developed,” says Jonathan Harris.

Read or listen to the article.

From Awakin.

Listening for the Path of Life 

Brother Sean Glenn of Society of St. John the Evangelist relates that during years of intensive training for a career in music, he began to find pressures that robbed him of the early love he had for his career choice. He eventually was called to a different path. Lent, says Br. Sean, is a time when we can take stock of these dualities—these choices—in our lives. It is a time when we might ask if God is calling us to a different path. 

 Read the reflection.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

Light a Candle for Ukraine

A Network for Grateful Living invites you to virtually light a candle for the people of Ukraine. During the lighting you may offer thoughts or prayers, joining more than 22 million people from 194 countries.

To light a candle.

From Network for Grateful Living.

Send Love – It Matters

In a lovely poem, Carrie Newcomer reminds us that even if we can’t be there to hug those who needs hugs – and food, and shelter, and hope – we can send love. Across the ocean, carried on God’s own spirit, we can send love.

Read and listen to the poem.

From Awakin.

Courage

We tend to think of courage as facing those things in life of which we are afraid.  But, says poet David Whyte, “To be courageous is not necessarily to go anywhere or do anything except to make conscious those things we already feel deeply and then to live through the unending vulnerabilities of those consequences.”

Read the reflection.

From Daily Good.

Greater Good Resources for Peace and Conflict

The Greater Good Science Center, an educational nonprofit organization, offers resources for understanding the roots of peace, war, and reconciliation. Topics addressed in this article include Promoting peace and reconciliation, Reminders of human goodness, How political apology and forgiveness works, Resources for well-being and activism, and Resources for children’s well-being.

Read the article and find resources.

Found in Daily Good.

Our Best Farewell Gift

In Jesus’ farewell speech, he tells his followers he is leaving them his peace and his spirit.  What gift will we leave our loved ones? How can we leave a spirit of peace? Our lives and our deaths belong not just to us; they are to be given to others as a gift.

Read the reflection.

From Fr. Ron Rolheiser.

Change And New Doors

A little boy, whittling on a block of wood, just lets the shavings fall to the ground.  But our spiritual whittling means not rejecting these parts of ourselves but gathering them up and integrating them as we grow. A ministry that was once important in our lives may need to be let go for a new challenge.  

Read the reflection.

From Joanna Seibert.

The 5 Kinds of Love We Often Overlook

Romantic love gets all the attention, but there are many ways to love, and not all of them involve a sexual partner, says Marisa Cohen.  Most of us give and receive more love than we realize.  Look at these five ways to experience love.

Read the essay.

From Happify Daily.

An Unusual Gift From My Grandfather

Her grandfather always brought her such unusual gifts.  The little cup full of dirt she could not play with seemed senseless to her.  But she watered it every day just as her grandfather had told her to do.  Then one day something unusual happened. She still thinks it was her first lesson in the power of service.

Read the reflection.

From Daily Good.

Writing a Better Story

Singer, songwriter, and poet Carrie Newcomer reflects on the stories of her life and comes up with a new storyline, in reflection and in song. “I can tell a story of love or a story of fear. I’m choosing each day to smooth down that clean page and tell a better story,” she says. What might your better story be?

Read and listen.

From Daily Good.

Trusting Our Essential Self  to God

Immense humility, not arrogance, characterizes someone who lives in his or her essential self. Richard Rohr calls it “the true self.” In this position, says Rohr, “You simultaneously know you are a child of God, but you also know that you didn’t earn it and you are not worthy of it. You know it’s entirely a gift.”

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

Working-Class Spirituality

Joanna Seibert reflects on the admonition of Bishop Steven Charleston that Christianity is not a spectator sport. “Eventually, all our spiritual practices connecting us to God will be calling us to some action, reaching out of ourselves in some way.”

Read the reflection.

About Joanna Seibert.

Prayer as Seeking Depth

When Jesus’ disciples asked him to “teach us to pray,” they weren’t looking for the ability to heal or do miraculous works. Rather, they saw Jesus’ depth connection to God and wanted that for themselves. 

Read the reflection.

From the blog of Fr. Ron Rolheiser.

Cognitive Bypassing

Can we change our emotions by thinking hard enough? Can we move our guts into our heads?  No, says Dr. Russell Wilson. “The uncomfortable truth is that there is a component of painful emotions that simply must be felt, as hard as that may be to hear.” 

Read the article.

From Awakin’.

On Meeting Loss, Finding Life

The continuing pandemic has brought loss and grief into every corner of our lives and our world. Perhaps we are past the point, early on, when we were anxious for life to return to “normal.” It is not going to, says Roshi Joan Halifax, and “with the widespread losses and uncertainty we now face, it is essential that we allow ourselves to grieve and to work with our fear in a wise and brave way –collectively, as well as on our own.

Read this address given by Roshi Joan Halifax on October 25, 2021, as she received the Sandy MacKinnon Award from Covenant Health, Edmonton, Canada.

From Daily Good.

Courage

Courage, says poet David Whyte, is not about bravely facing outrageously frightening situations. It is what love looks like when tested by the simple everyday necessities of being alive.

Read the reflection.

From A Network for Grateful Living.

Let The Sun Rise

In another wonderful video from Green Renaissance, James Motlhamme shares his experience of orienting to each new day with a sense of contentment and optimism. No matter how hard it gets, he says, each day the sun rises and gives us an opportunity to begin again.

Watch the video.

From A Network for Grateful Living.

The Really Terrible Orchestra

Some years ago, a group of frustrated people in Scotland decided that the pleasure of playing in an orchestra should not be limited to those who are good enough to do so, but should be available to the rankest of amateurs. So they formed The Really Terrible Orchestra, made up of those who love to play but aren’t very good at it.  Read this delightful essay about what happened next.

Read the essay.

From Daily Good.

A Prayerful Stance

Prayer, says Fr. Richard Rohr, is not words or even thinking. It is, rather, living in the awareness and presence of God right here, right now, all the time. Wherever we are, however we are, God is there with us.

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

What we Do in Private

Since we are all part of the Body of Christ, everything we do affects the whole body. As Parker Palmer says, f you are here faithfully, you bring great blessing. Conversely, says Rumi,  If you are here unfaithfully, you bring great harm.

Read the reflection.

From the blog of Ron Rolheiser.

Practicing Rehumanization as We Move Into Uncertainty

John Paul Lederach is a sociologist and specialist in conflict transformation. In this essay, Roshi Joan Halifax offers John Paul’s ideas for rehumanization in this time of uncertainty. We must foster our moral imagination in order to put others first and us second.

Read the reflection.

From Daily Good.