Tag: bible

Gathered Wisdom, Nov. 17, 2025

Marjorie George

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

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and to pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.
-John Muir
Found at Well for the Journey

Advent Resources

In her wisdom, the Church sets aside the four weeks before Christmas to help us prepare for the incredulous coming of God into the world in human form. We hope one or more of  these Advent resources will help to slow your soul as you ready yourself to receive him.

Throw off the Darkness from Monasteries of the Heart. Daily practices  will include scripture, good works, psalms, embodied movements, lectio, artistic responses, and holy leisure. Must have a Monasteries of the Heart account.

Advent Devotionals from Everything Happens with Kate Bowler.  Each day receive a short scripture, a reflection, and a blessing. Signup by subscribing to Kate’s substack account.

And His Name Shall be Called Advent Devotional from Upper Room. Reflect on the four names that reveal the promise of God’s presence in Isaiah 9:6: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace.

Advent Word from the Episcopal Church. An inspirational online Advent calendar featuring a daily prompt word selected from the Sunday Lectionary readings.

Daily Text Messages from The Wisdom Years. A short inspirational message to your cell phone Mon-Fri, Dec 1 through 24.  Send your name, email address and cell phone number to marjoriegeorge62@gmail.com

Love Beyond Death

Death does not separate us from those we love, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser. Our faith tells us that we are in living union with each other inside the Body of Christ. “The real intent of our prayers and ritual celebrations for the dead is to continue to be in a more deliberate communication of life with them,” he says.

Read the reflection.

From the blog of Ron Rolheiser.

The Day I Learned Giving

They were in line to buy the circus tickets, standing right behind a large family of eight children. But when the father of that family got to the ticket counter to buy the tickets, he did not have enough money. Read what happened next.

Read the story.

From Awakin.

Contemplation Is Christianity

“Contemplation is not about escaping life but entering it more fully,” says Richard Rohr. It is not a separate path or a unique calling. It is Christianity itself, lived with depth and honesty.

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

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, Sept 17, 2025

Marjorie George

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

All of us are standing on someone else’s shoulders. Someone else who opened the door and paved the way . . . You have a responsibility to open the door and keep this moving.

 -Ruby Bridges, as quoted in “The Guardian” on May 6, 2021
Found at Well for the Journey

How All Things Hold Together

In his poem “The Coming,” Welsh poet R. S. Thomas pictures God the creator holding the globe in his hands with Christ looking on. Together they see the suffering and hopelessness man has wrought on the world they created. And Christ says, “Let me go there.”

Read the reflection.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

Read “The Coming”

A Choice for Love

“Love is a decision,” says Richard Roohr. “And we had better make the decision to love early in the day because once we’re a few hours into low-level resentment, anger, or disappointment, it’s too late.

Read the reflection.

From the Center for Action and Contemplation.

Mourning our Unfinished Symphony

None of us gets the entire symphony in our lifetime. And we need to mourn that incompleteness. “All of us will die with some unfulfilled dreams; none of us will find full, abiding, ecstatic embrace this side of eternity,” says Fr. Ron Rolheiser. How do we come to terms with that?

Read the reflection.

From the blog of Ron Rolheiser.

Simple Was Satisfying

What makes you smile? Tea on the patio with friends? A face-lick from your dog? It’s about paying attention to the small things. “If you’re completely preoccupied with your medical test or doctor’s appointment next week, you might miss the rare migratory birds outside your window right now,” says Susan Bauer-Wu in this Awakin essay.

Read the essay.

From Awakin.

Rethinking the Bucket List

An end-of-life Hospice counselor talks about what people really want in the “last chapter” of their lives. To live each day as if it is your last, says Kathleen Taylor, “discover your uniqueness, do some introspection.” In our last days, we become our authentic selves, says Taylor in this ten-minute TED talk.

Watch the video.

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.

Gathered Wisdom, Aug. 15, 2025

Marjorie George

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

You find me on the journey and guide my steps..
You encompass me with love wherever I go…
Your mysteries fill me with wonder!

 -Nan Merrill, Psalms for Praying
Found in Well for the Journey

Falling Upward – Our Fall Study

What is the container we build for ourselves in the first half of our lives, and what does that container reveal to us in the second half of our lives? Those are the questions for Richard Rohr in his classical work Falling Upward. This fall the Wisdom Years community will dig into those questions as we engage Falling Upward beginning Sept. 4. For all the details and to join us, click here.

Letting The Hero Die

When you finally get to the place where you don’t have to identify with the part of you that needs to win, needs to be recognized, needs to know, this is where your transcendent life begins. “Every defeat is just an angel, tugging at your sleeve, telling you that you don’t have to keep banging your head against the wall,” says Paul Weinfield.

Read the essay.

From Awakin.

Caring for Self and Others in Times of Trouble: Some Spiritual Tools and Tips

Breathe. Breathe again. Take time in your day to stop and take 10 deep breaths. That is one of 13 tips for living peacefully in these perilous times. Choose which ones are soothing for you and practice them as you can.

Read the suggestions.

From Grateful Living.

Being Ready for God

“What if instead of focusing on doing actions in times of powerlessness, you focused on states of being, like being patient, being charitable, being forgiving, or even being joyful? What if for one day you thought more about how you should be than what you should do?”

Read the reflection.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

The Descent into Hell

Is there a time in some people’s lives when the situation is so dire that we cannot even open the door to let Jesus in? Must we be the ones who initiate the action of inviting Jesus into those horrible times? No, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser. Jesus does not wait to have the door opened. When we are unable to act, Jesus walks right through the door to rescue us.

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 15, 2025

Marjorie George

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

Sometimes you can swim with the current to the top of the tide, to the pause between flow and ebb ….
The earth is still turning, and gravity is still pulling …. But in that one spot, you experience stillness.

 -Patricia Hanlon, Swimming to the Top of the Tide
Found in Well for the Journey

Not this Time

When will the flashing lights of an EMS vehicle stop at your house? As we face our mortality, we need to take the time to make our inevitable passing as calm and meaningful as possible for everyone, says Sandy Reynolds of “A Crone in the Woods.” Reynolds offers fee-based workshops and retreats about preparing for our deaths. Investigate them in this article.

Read the article.

From A Crone in the Woods.

God is not in lockdown

The Kingdom of God is like treasure hidden in a field, according to Saint Matthew (13:44). The man digging wasn’t looking for treasure, didn’t expect to find any. But there it was. “He was probably in the middle of a rather ordinary job, perhaps digging up a field to sow some seeds,” says Br. Geoffrey Tristram. God is like that – God shows up in the most unexpected places.

Read the reflection.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

Microscope to Telescope: Expand Your Perspective

This practice invites us to spend some time with whatever thought we have been carrying around. Looking at the thought under a microscope is far different than looking at it through a telescope.

Read or listen to do this practice on your own.

From Grateful Living.

Meal-Based Social Action

Jesus didn’t want his community to have a social ethic; he wanted it to be a social ethic, says Richard Rohr. Mostly Jesus proclaimed this not by what he said but by what he did – eating with everyone.

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

Book Event

The Pilgrim Life: Finding God Along the Way by Deborah Smith Douglas.

From the back cover:  “Deborah Douglas not only invites us to become stronger in our faith; she cheers for us as we go along.  She celebrates each step.  She offers grounded encouragement and heartfelt joy.”   The Rev. Mary Earle, from the Foreword.

Deborah will be at St. Mark’s Bookstore in San Antonio on June 17 for Tea, Scones, & Conversation at 1:30 p.m.  She and Mary Earle will be in conversation about this book.  (They are close personal friends!  Promises to be rich!)

RSVP www.stmarksbookstore@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.

Gathered Wisdom, May 15, 2025

Marjorie George

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

I want to worship at the shrine of everywhere,
want to know every inch
of this earth as an altar…

Every step a step
from holy to holy
to holy.

-Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer, “Sacred Ground,” The Unfolding

Found at Well for the Journey

Old Age and The Receding Time

We can live our aging in anger and regret, or we can embrace it as a “juicy, creative threshold.” It is a place of hard-won wisdom, says Stephanie Raffelock in this essay.

Read the essay.

From Creative Eldering.

Our Longing for God’s Justice

It is not enough, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser, that we should be happy. We want others to be miserable. We can so easily identify the sins of others and call down God’s wrath upon them.  But that says more about us than about them.

Read the reflection.

From the blog of Fr. Ron Rolheiser.

Risking Trust

In the parable of the talents, the one who buried his gift rather than risking it is judged harshly (Matthew 25:14-30). The temptation for us in this chaotic world is to protect ourselves by shrinking back, staying hidden. But are we instead called to risk the gifts we have been given?

Read the reflection.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

Sharing Someone Else’s Wound

The man who ran the rabbit farm took upon himself the young woman’s wound so he could get antibiotics and share them with her. It saved her life. What does it take to push against all that pressure and do the right thing, with courage and moral clarity, and to see another person as a person, when everything around you is telling you not to?

Read the story.

From Awakin.

How Forgiveness Changes You and Your Brain

The act of forgiveness  activates structures and pathways in the brain that improve resilience and social connection more broadly. We are empowered to step beyond painful experiences in an energized, motivated, and connected way.

Read the article.

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, April 15, 2025

Marjorie George

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

No matter how chaotic it is, wildflowers will still spring up in the middle of nowhere.

-Sheryl Crow, Musician, singer, songwriter
Found at Well for the Journey

A Stone’s Throw Away From Everybody

Jesus . . . faced his death knowing that he was loved by others but also knowing that in the face of death he was entering a place where he was deeply and utterly alone. That will be our test too in the end. One day each of us will also have to “give over” his or her spirit. Inside of that unanimity-minus-one, will our hearts be warm or bitter?

Read the reflection.

From Ron Rolheiser blog.

Walking through Holy Week

Were you there when they crucified my Lord? asks an old gospel song. Joanne Seibert finds that she was. She has played each of the characters in the drama of Holy Week and invites us to walk with her again.

Read the reflection.

From Joanna Seibert’s Daily Something.

The Fish, The Net, and The Water

“A fisherman’s net is actually a set of holes kept together by ropes; it can only catch fishes, but not the water in which it is totally immersed,” says Mauro Bergonzi in an Awakin post. Likewise, reality is not a problem to be solved; it is a mystery.

Read the reflection.

From Awakin.

Peace in Ourselves

No matter what is going on in our world at levels over which we have no control, it is in our power to hold on to the practices that nourish us, inform us, and give us courage, said Adam Bucko. There are always choices to be made.

Read the reflection.

From Terry Hershey’s Sabbath Moment.

Practicing Forgiveness in the Midst of Resentment

“What would it look like in your life if you were to take forgiveness as seriously as Jesus took forgiveness?” asks Brother Jack Crowley. “Own your resentments and own up to your resentments. Don’t deny them, they are perfectly natural, but don’t let them fester. Bring your resentments out to the light for God to see.” 

Read the reflection.

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, Dec 17, 2024

Marjorie George

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

The Wisdom Years wishes you a blessed Christmas as we welcome the Holy One who comes to live among us.

Gathered Wisdom is taking a Christmas break. We will be back in January.

The Mystery of Bethlehem

With the birth of Jesus, new light comes into the world. Our ancestors in the faith knew that we needed this light particularly in winter time “when things seem most dark,” says Br. James Koester.

Read the reflection.

From Society of St. John the Evangelist.

Staying Awake

“Live as if you were going to die tomorrow,” say some. But can we really do that? It’s hard to be present to every moment, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser. Having rituals helps. Starting each day with prayer is essential.

Read the reflection.

From Ron Rolheiser blog.

A New Vision of God

For most of us, God will have the same characteristics as our mothers and fathers.  If our father was stern, God will be stern. “Jesus inserted into the human imagination a radical new vision of God—non-dominating, nonviolent, supreme in service, and self-giving,” says Brian McLaren.

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

Happiness Break: 5 Minutes of Gratitude

This practice guides you to take a good look at the things in your life that make you the most happy. At this resource, find more ways to bring gratitude into daily life.

Read the article.

From Greater Good Science Center.

The Sacrament of Joy

The little boys wanted to talk to the ducklings, so of course they got into the pond. “Every day, we are bombarded with the same insistent injunction—the implication that life begins some place other than where we are, right now,” says Terry Hershey. “And we too easily miss the ‘duckling moments.’”

Read the reflection.

From Sabbath Moment.

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, Oct 1, 2024

Marjorie George

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

Your sacred space is where you find yourself over and over again. 

-Joseph Campbell, A Joseph Campbell Companion 

New Beginnings

Retirement is one of the many transitions we face in the last third of life. And though we may choose it and welcome it, we still will go through difficult emotions. Hilda Davis offers this Flourishing in Transition (FIT) ritual as we seek clarity for the path ahead.

Read the article.

From the Fuller De Pree Center.

Autumn and Impermanence

Autumn reminds us that there is a time to let go. Every autumn, says Joyce Rupp, “I turn and face the big question: how to cherish who and what I have but to hold these gifts freely, with open hands and heart.”

Read the reflection. 

From Joyce Rupp.

Patience with God

Our greatest faith struggle, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser, is being patient with God. Jesus said the meek will inherit the earth, but mostly it doesn’t seem so. Justice does not seem to prevail. “How long, O Lord?” we ask.

Read the reflection.

From Ron Rolheiser.

Practicing the Gospel

The early Franciscan friars were more interested in practicing and living the gospel than in simply teaching about it. What about us? The prophets ask, “Why aren’t you doing what you say you believe?”

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

God Callings

It is not just in our quiet time that we connect with God. Everything we do, all day long, is part of our following and serving God.  Sometimes we are doing, other times we are being – it is all our offering to God.

Read the reflection.

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, May 7, 2024

Marjorie George

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

Prayer is a mystery that begins in God. Our prayer is always in response to God’s initiative. It is God who has caught our attention.

Br. Curtis Almquist, SSJE
Read More

Space that can Heal

Stillness and silence can be a fullness, rather than a void, says Terry Hershey. Healing space, he adds, is “an invitation to the sacrament of the present moment. To be here now. Fully.”

Read the reflection.

From Sabbath Moment.

God Is Bringing Us Home

As we age, we face “uncreation,” says Richard Rohr. What we have created in our younger years is no longer important. “My self-created self gave me a nice trail to walk on, and something to do each day, but it isn’t really me. It might be my career or my vocation; yet as good as it is, it isn’t my True Self. ” 

Read the reflection.

From Center for Action and Contemplation.

Following Jesus – According to the Letter or the Spirit?

No matter how determined we are to right the wrongs of the Church, our bitterness, anger, judgmentalism, and mean spiritedness are not the way to do it, says Fr. Ron Rolheiser. Right truth and right morals don’t necessarily make us disciples of Jesus.

Read the reflection.

From Ron Rolheiser’s blog.

Luminous Darkness and Holding My Thumb

Lucy Grace grew up in a neighborhood where gangs ruled and initiation into them involved things like raping someone’s mother. But Lucy learned to hold her thumb as a symbol of how things would be better some day.

Read the reflection.

Found in Daily Good.

Love God and Do What You Want

It is always a shock to learn that St Augustine said, “Love God and do what you want.” The kicker is that if we love God, what we will want is to be like Jesus. To do that, we must learn to love as Jesus did. 

Read the 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, Apr 23, 2024

Marjorie George

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

God’s mission is to restore and renew all of creation in a loving embrace. Jesus intercedes and invites our participation.

Br. Luke Ditewig, SSJE
Read More and Comment

Dancing with the Enemy

A beloved professor tells the story of Jewish students and Muslims students going to New Orleans together to help clean up after Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005. It was a strained relationship until they started dancing.

Read the reflection.

From Daily Good.

Learning to See

The woman who was out of place, the woman who had just poured expensive perfume all over Jesus.  Simon saw a sinner; Jesus saw a woman in pain. Do we actually “see” those in need that Jesus places in front of us?

Read the article.

From Renovare.

In Safer Hands than Ours

Fr. Ron Rolheiser writes that at funerals, he tells the grieving family that their loved one  “is now in hands safer than ours.” Our God is reliable, says Rolheiser. “Ultimately, God is not a God who cannot protect us, but is a God in whose hands and in whose promise we are far safer than when we rely upon ourselves.”

Read the reflection.

More about Ron Rolheiser.

An Interrupted Life

Christian philanthropist Fred Smith says that Paul’s Letter to the Romans “has had more impact on Western civilization and the life of the Church than any other he wrote.” Yet Paul never intended to stay in Rome; he was only passing through on his way to Spain. How do we deal with it when our plans are totally derailed by something not of our own making? Can we see it as God’s plan for us?

Read the reflection.

From The Gathering.

Healing Power of Presence

Sometimes you just need a friend to hold your hand. Sometimes you need to be a friend who will hold someone’s hand.

Read the reflection.

From Sabbath Moment.

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.