Category: gathered wisdom

Gathered Wisdom, July 25, 2023

Marjorie George

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

Are the boundaries of language getting in your way? It may be helpful to think of prayer as returning God’s adoring gaze. Close your eyes, open your heart, and offer up your fear, loneliness, anger, sadness, even joy. God already knows but wants you to share with the awareness of God’s presence. Out of this mutual adoration begin to discover the authentic language that God is speaking to you.

Br. Jim Woodrum, SSJE
Read More and Comment >

What We Resist Persists

Spiritual practices that begin with “don’t,” are not sound practices, says Richard Rohr. Starting from the negative, he says, means we are relying on our own willpower. Our first energy has to be “yes” energy. From there we can move, build, and proceed. We must choose the positive, which is to choose love.

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

A Broad Margin

Writer Pavithra Mehta reminds us that efficiency and epiphany do not typically travel together. A bend in the road may not be the shortest distance between two points, but it will always be revelatory. We miss the beauty when we are more driven by productivity than by our capacity for wonder.

Read the reflection.

From Daily Good.

It’s up to us. When will we figure that out?

We are in a time beyond yesterday and too soon for tomorrow, says Joan Chittiser. We must figure out how to collaborate, to do the things together that are important for us all.

Read the article.

Found in National Catholic Reporter.

Doing Violence in God’s Name

From the time that we first gained self-consciousness, we’ve done violence in God’s name, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser. “Even our language, in both the circles of right and the left, is rife with a violence we justify in God’s name.”

Read the reflection.

From Ron Rolheiser’s blog.

The Hidden Joy of Waiting In Line

How long will you wait for an Internet video to load? Researchers have found that most people are willing to wait two seconds. After five seconds, 25 percent of us will abandon the video wait. After 10 seconds, half of the people waiting will quit. Writer Carolyn Gregoire suggests nine things you can do while waiting.

Read the reflection.

From Daily Good.

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, July 18, 2023

Marjorie George

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

Life is too short and too beautiful to sleepwalk through it. Let’s stay awake, pay attention, and keep our eyes open…to see God. 

Adam Bucko, Let Heartbreak Be Your Guide
From Well for the Journey

Understanding and Appreciating Our Differences

Our differences are grace, contends Fr. Ron Rolheiser.  There is in scripture a “strong, recurring motif,” says Rolheiser, “that God’s message to us generally comes through the stranger, the foreigner, from the one who is different from us, from a source from which we would never expect to hear God’s voice.”

Read the reflection.

From the blog of Ron Rolheiser.

Praying With the News

Sometimes – actually often these days – the evening news programs leave us in anger and fear when we learn about the hatred and divisiveness of our society. But Rabbi Yael Levy uses this opportunity to pray for those affected by what we see and hear. 

Read the reflection.

From Awakin. 

Pathway Of Discernment

Ignatius of Loyola taught a method of discernment that involves active imagination. It includes envisioning the outcomes from the choices we make. The presence of peace becomes the defining moment.

Read the reflection.

From Joanna Seibert’s blog.

Sitting Alongside Suffering

What do we do when we cannot alleviate the suffering of someone we love? We want to spare this person’s pain, but we cannot. Best to sit alongside and massage the person’s feet.

Read the reflection.

From The Examined Family.

Who Is My Neighbor?

The story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), says Brother Geoffrey Tristram of the Society of St. John the Evangelist, is about boundaries. The priest and the Levite who “walked by on the other side” when they saw the beaten and robbed man were staying within the boundaries set by their religion and culture. The story is about God’s mercy – a mercy that has no boundaries.

Read or listen to Brother Geoffrey’s sermon.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

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, July 11, 2023

Marjorie George

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

Holiness comes wrapped in the ordinary. There are burning bushes all around you. Every tree is full of angels. Hidden beauty is waiting in every crumb. Life wants to lead you from crumbs to angels, but this can happen only if you are willing to unwrap the ordinary by staying with it long enough to harvest its treasure.

-Macrina Wiederkehr, A Tree Full of Angels: Seeing the Holy in the Ordinary 

From Well for the Journey

Sabbath Moments

Terry Hershey reminds us of an old story from Henri Nouwen about a handicapped person asking for a blessing. All of us need blessings. And all of us can bless others.

Read the reflection.

From Terry Hershey’s Sabbath Moments.

Crisis Contemplation

“It’s in the darkness, it’s in the moment of crisis when you have fallen through all of your own expectations that there is the opportunity for rebirthing,” says Barbara Holmes. Rather than rushing to solve the moment, slowing down and staying in place “bring us face to face with the invisible, the hidden, the unremarked, the yet-to-be-resolved.”

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

Live Life to the Full

There is a reason we are encouraged to adopt spiritual disciplines, says Dallas Willard. “One must intend to do it, and then one must sensibly implement the means. Appropriate action is the key.” The path of spiritual growth in the riches of Christ is not a passive one, says Willard. “Grace is not opposed to effort.”

Read the article.

From Renovare.

Hermann Hesse on Breaking the Trance of Busyness

The burden of busyness as a way of life is not a making of only today’s society.  In a 1905 essay, the poet, writer, and artist Hermann Hesse, writes,  “the idea of hurry-hurry as the most important objective of living, is unquestionably the most dangerous enemy of joy.”

Read the essay.

From Daily Good.

House of Belonging

Poetry by David Whyte

This is the bright home
in which I live,
this is where
I ask
my friends
to come,

Read the rest of the poem.

From David Whyte’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, July 4, 2023

Marjorie George

Gathered Wisdom is taking an Independence Day break. See you next week.

For your prayers today:

Almighty God, who has given us this good land for our heritage: We humbly beseech you that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of your favor and glad to do your will.

From “Prayers for Our Country,” The Book of Common Prayer, page 820

Gathered Wisdom, June 27, 2023

Marjorie George

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

Practice listening to your intuition, your inner voice; ask questions; be curious; see what you see; hear what you hear; and then act upon what you know to be true. These intuitive powers were given to your soul at birth.

-Dr. Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With The Wolves

From Well for the Journey.

Joyas Voladoras

Did you know that a hummingbird’s heart is the size of a pencil eraser? The blue whale, on the other hand, has a heart bigger than your car. In this delightful essay from The American Scholar, Brian Doyle reflects on hearts of all manner, including our own.

Read or listen to the essay.

Found in Daily Good.

How Can It All Have a Happy Ending?

Why did a loving God create a world that allows sin, evil, and suffering to exist? The conventional wisdom is that God gave us free will to engage in these things. But that answer was not sufficient for Julian of Norwich says Ron Rolheiser.

Read the essay.

From Kolbe Times.

On the Edge of Life and Death

In St. Joseph’s House hospice community in Washington D.C., both the residents and the volunteers who walk with them to the edge of death learn what it means to be in loving relationships.

Watch the video.

From KarmaTube.

Is Age Really Just a Number?

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s Chief Medical Correspondent, launches a new season of his podcasts that focuses on aging.  In the first episode, Gupta examines aging from the perspective of his own parents and a medical professional about how re-framing the way we think, and talk, about aging can influence our health and attitudes.

Listen to the podcast.

From Chasing Life podcasts. A CNN audio.

Claiming My Now

A Wisdom Years Workshop
for older adults
July 15, 2023, 9 am to 1 pm

Each season of life brings new revelations, new challenges, new blessings. During the “wisdom years” – the last third of life – while the body diminishes, the spiritual longing for a deeper relationship with God increases. Our “Claiming My Now” workshop is an opportunity to consider how we can navigate the joys and the challenges of the later years of life.

Get all the details.

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, June 20

Marjorie George

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

An unanswered question is a fine traveling companion. It sharpens your eyes for the road.

-Rachel Naomi Remen, Kitchen Table Wisdom

Claiming My Now

A workshop for older adults.

July 15 – in-person and online

Get the details.

Dolphins And Going Deeper

Dolphins, says Joanna Seibert, can be seen as a metaphor for our journey “to the ground of our being ” as the Spirit leads us to the Christ deep within us. Dolphin-watching is easier when the sea is still, not choppy. So it is with our lives: “When the waves are too high, and the weather is stormy, the parts of ourselves showing us the path may be less visible.”

Read the reflection.

From Joanna Seibert.

The Practice of Tsundoku & Why You May Want to Adopt It

Are there tons of books on your bookshelf that you swore you were going to read but you never did and now you feel guilty about it? Take heart – this may be a good thing. The Japanese call it tsundoku.

Read the article.

From Big Think.

Julian of Norwich

“If we only knew how God feels toward us, we would run to him with complete trust,” says Grace Pouch of Renovare. That is one of the deep theological truths that was revealed to Julian of Norwich in the “showings.” Mimi Dixon and Nathan Foster explore this thought in an encore podcast from Renovare.

Listen to the podcast. (It’s long – almost an hour.)

From Renovare.

Lion Heart

Pain is an emotion that has not settled down. It is behind a door that we have closed to shut it away. But pain is a remedy, says Luzuko Madonci.  It can be a healer, a helper, a teacher, a residue of something good that is happening.

Watch the video.

From Karmatube.

The Perils of Safety

Are we too cautious? asks Fr. Ron Rolheiser. . “Are our lives really about love and generosity rather than fear and self-protection?” Sometimes we can be so cautious and timid that fear rather than love becomes the compass for our life.

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, June 13, 2023

Marjorie George

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

God is always coming to us. Pay attention to now. God’s presence is always in the present. There will be “thin places” where God breaks through to you, often mysteriously, in the here-and-now. Pay attention to now.

Br. Curtis Almquist, SSJE
Read More

Claiming My Now

A Wisdom Years Workshop
for older adults
July 15, 2023, 9 am to 1 pm

Each season of life brings new revelations, new challenges, new blessings. During the “wisdom years” – the last third of life – while the body diminishes, the spiritual longing for a deeper relationship with God increases. Our “Claiming My Now” workshop is an opportunity to consider how we can navigate the joys and the challenges of the later years of life.

Get all the details.

How to Make Stress Your Friend

We are all used to being told to reduce the amount of stress in our lives. But health psychologist Kelly McGonigal has discovered that stress can actually be good for us and even make us more social.

Watch the TED talk or read the transcript.

Found in Daily Good. 

When Fear is All Around

Like the disciples in the boat when the great storm arose, we are surrounded by fear in these days – if not because of the political and social climate, then because of our personal experiences: a life-threatening illness, or the break-up of a marriage or friendship, a damaged career or an uncertain economic future.  Like Jesus, we must speak to our fears, says Brother David Vryhof.

Read the sermon.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

The Quid for Which There is No Quo

Consider the Amaryllis Belladonna, that, like the lilies of the field,  “neither toil nor spin” (Matt 6:28) yet are beautiful. And they show up just when you have given them up for dead.  Perhaps there is a lesson for us in the flowers.

Read the delightful essay.

From Daily Good.

Prayer Times

Deacon Joanna Seibert reminds us that from our Jewish forebearers we inherited a pattern of prayer three times a day. Early Christians often took to heart Psalm 119:164, “Seven times a day do I praise you.” By the Middle Ages, says Seibert, monks had developed a tradition of seven daily prayer times. In our day we can strengthen our prayers by intentionally adding Noonday Prayers and Compline to our daily routine.  The forms for both are in the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer.

Read more.

From Joanna Seibert.

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, June 6, 2023

Marjorie George

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

Creativity flourishes not in certainty but in questions … Yet the seduction is always in security rather than venturing, instant knowing rather than deliberate waiting.

 -Sue Monk Kidd, When the Heart Waits

July 15, 2023

For “Claiming My Now”

A half-day hybrid workshop in-person at the Bishop Jones Center in San Antonio and on Zoom.

For adults in the last third of their lives

From The Wisdom Years

$20

“I will start from here,” said Bishop Steven Charleston. In this workshop we will ask ourselves,
“Where is my ‘here’ in this season of my life?
What nurtures my soul?
What obstacles do I face?
How can we navigate together the outrageous joys as well as the deep sorrows of these years?

Join us for reflection, conversation, sharing of wisdom, and time on the grounds of the Bishop Jones Center.

Registration for “Claiming My Now” opens in mid-June. To indicate your interest in the workshop, send an email to Marjorie George at marjoriegeorge62@gmail.com.

12 Truths I Learned from Life and Writing

The delightful and wise writer Anne Lamott offers 12 things she knows almost for sure as she leans in to being over 60. Thing number 2, for instance, is “Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes — including you. ”

Read or listen to the TED Talk.

Found in Daily Good.

Resurrection is Messy

Our true selves are not defined by our virtue or accomplishments.  Our true selves are known best by our scars. Jesus’ scars did not go away after he was raised from death. When he appeared to his disciples he invited them to see the scars on his hands and his side.

Read the reflection.

From The Corners by Nadia Bolz-Weber

Synchronicity

We all have had the experience of running into just the right person, receiving just the right phone call, coming across just the right word when we needed it. These coincidences are known by some  as times of “synchronicity.” Patrick Murray calls them “moments of transformation.” They embrace us with a profound sense that life is ultimately purposeful, says Joanna Seibert.

Read the short reflection.

From Joanna Seibert.

Shape Of Silence

Writer Kent Nerburn invites us to pay attention to the silence that surrounds each day. “A day comes alive by the silence that surrounds our actions,” he says. “The shape of the silence that surrounds us . . . opens our heart to the unseen, and reminds us that the world is larger than the events that fill our days.”

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, May 23, 2023

Marjorie George

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

During Ascensiontide, we behold the glory and grandeur of God – not by gazing at feet dangling out of clouds, but by pondering the very heart of mystery. We too are clothed in glory, even now.

Br. James Koester, SSJE

SAVE THE DATE

For “CLAIMING MY NOW”

A workshop for older adults.
From The Wisdom Years

July 15, 9 am To 12:30 pm
$20

A morning for digging into the joys and challenges of the later years.

In-person at the Bishop Jones Center in San Antonio
And hybrid by Zoom

To indicate interest, email to marjoriegeorge62@gmail.com.

Registration opens in early June.

The Divine Dimension of Life

James Finley, Center for Action and Contemplation teacher and psychotherapist, provides a helpful image about how our lives and struggles intersect with the ever-present love of God. The image help us remember we are not alone. Finley uses the technique with his patients, but we need not be clinically depressed to appreciate the image.

Read the reflection.

Graphic from Center for Action and Contemplation.

I Will Not Leave You Orphaned

The night before he was crucified, Jesus gave a comforting message to his friends. “I will not leave you orphaned,” he said to the gathered disciples. He was telling them that Holy Spirit would walk with them. This Sunday, May 28, we celebrate Pentecost – the day of the coming of the Holy Spirit – not just to the first disciples but to all of us.

Read the sermon.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

Cataclysms of the Heart

When our world falls apart, when we enter that “dark night of the soul,” we must remember that God does not desert us. Why does this “dark night” happen? It is like a honeymoon, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser. Honeymoons are wonderful, but, on a honeymoon, generally we are more in love with being in love and all the wonderful energy this creates than we are in love with the person behind all those feelings.

Read the reflection.

From the blog of Ron Rolheiser.

Earth Turns to Gold

In this short film from Green Renaissance, Shalav Israel says that “When we begin to share our stories, our experiences, then we are slowly peeling away on these ideas that separate us and create more pain and suffering. More and more, people are beginning to realize that it is not my skin color that defines me, it’s the concern that I have for the next person.”

Watch the video.

Posted on the Grateful Living Network.

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.